United Airlines has been adding seat back video screens to planes, and they’re planning to put the fastest internet in the sky on board – Starlink – starting next year. This is great for customers, but it’s all part of a plan to monetize the eyeballs of customers sitting on their planes.
Let’s check in on how that’s going.
A Delta Air Lines passenger flying from New York JFK shared what happened when they received a last minute upgrade from extra legroom coach up to business class. A flight attendant came up to them and brought them to their new seat – and their neighbor up front was a “very well behaved” dog.
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A woman with her toddler came over and plopped themselves down in that middle seat. She explained that she didn’t have enough space in the middle seat she’d been in further back in the aircraft – so she self-upgraded to “economy plus” extra legroom seats.
That way, she said, she’d be “more comfortable” with her kid – while her husband remained in an aisle seat farther back.
The business model isn’t working. They don’t have long haul international service that customers have wanted to buy. They don’t have airline partnerships to sell those products on other carriers, or pick up connecting traffic from other airlines either. And they’ve been the downmarket product that’s very much out of favor, as customers have increasingly been interested in paying more for a better experience. (Spirit has even shifted its business model chasing that business.)
I’ll take it a step further and explain how airlines offering these buy ups actually discourages passengers from buying first class outright (and you should consider this as a strategy to buy first class for less).
The elimination of change fees during the pandemic mean that you should consider buying coach instead of first class.
Air travel is supposed to be about making it from one place to another as quickly as possible. It seems as though we’ve forgotten this.
Lately there have seemed to be fewer 50,000 point business class awards between the U.S. and Europe – at least if you’re looking to fly non-stop to Paris or Amsterdam.
However Find Flights For Me reminds that an important tip for finding the best award pricing with Air France KLM Flying Blue is to remember that they often charge different prices for different destinations, even when traveling on the same flights across the Atlantic.
A passenger at the Bangalore airport fell victim to a lounge scam that cost her more than $1,000.
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.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
