General

Jul 31 2017

Flights in and out of Qatar have become more difficult. Airlines like Etihad, Emirates, and Gulf Air stopped flying to Doha. And the severing of relations has created limits on Qatari-registered aircraft flying through the airspace of some of the countries involved.

Qatar does not have its own flight information region, it’s within the Bahrain region. The Doha terminal control area is from ground to 24,500 feet, and above 24,500 feet is the Bahrain Upper Information Region. Traffic is re-routing primarily via Iran. There are only two routes for air traffic in and out of Qatar.

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Jul 31 2017

Malaysia Airlines is planning 16 fully flat business class seats with direct aisle access for their Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

The mental model is jetBlue’s Mint product, but with each seat offering direct aisle access.

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Jul 31 2017

When I get on a long flight the first thing I do is take my pants off. That is, I change into pajamas. If I’m flying first class the airline usually gives me a pair (to keep, though my home is full of airline pajamas I rarely taken them along anymore).

If I’m flying business class some airlines provide pajamas, others don’t. United offers them on flights of 12 hours or more but only stocks enough for 60% of passengers to take them.

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Jul 31 2017

This fall Barclaycard will launch an Uber co-brand Visa.

Uber is losing a billion dollars per quarter but the biggest co-brand credit card deals run into the billions, it would be a twist if like the airlines which flew through rough times to preserve the underlying credit card business the ultimate road to profitability for Uber rode through the banks as well.

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Jul 30 2017

Scott Kirby when he was President of American Airlines talked about Basic Economy as something that would be worth $1 billion to the airline. He modified somewhat to talk about segmentation (basic economy and premium economy combined) as worth $1 billion. He’s used the $1 billion figure at United now that he’s President there as well.

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Jul 30 2017

Spirit Airlines is the carrier that advertised their “Many Islands Low Fares” or MILF sale with a young man in bed with an older woman who turns out to be his best friend’s mom — and the tagline, “Think that’s low? You should see our fares!”

So what planet are we on where Spirit is complaining that fares are too low?

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Jul 30 2017

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Jul 30 2017

During earnings calls a lot of assertions get made that go unchallenged. They may not stand up to scrutiny but they get repeated because if an airline executive said it, it must be true.

American’s call on Friday included one whopper and one claim I’ve been trying to make sense of.

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Jul 30 2017

easyJet flight EZY2122 from Nice to London Luton was delayed nearly 13 hours on Saturday.

Customers were frustrated. But apparently the easyJet experience was harder on airport customer service staff than on passengers, because this agent was photographed hitting a man who was holding a 9 month old baby.

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Jul 29 2017

For the last two and a half years I’ve written about customers having their accounts shut down by Air France after transferring points in from a bank partner and redeeming an award.

An Air France auditor claimed at the time, “[T]he use of our frequent flyer accounts as boxes opened to transfer miles with our non air partners won’t be allowed anymore.”

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