As Delta Makes Austin a Focus City, American Airlines Talks About Its Future There

by Gary Leff

Sep 24 2019

Austin has been one of the fastest growing airports in the country in recent years. This year they increased the number of available gates at the airport by 37%. While the amount of long haul international flying is limited, there’s London service from British Airways and Norwegian and Lufthansa started flying to Frankfurt back in May.

Delta has named Austin a focus city. While the largest airlines at Austin, in order, are Southwest, American, United and then Delta the addition of new gates will allow Delta to grow – and the gap between the three large U.S. legacy airlines isn’t that large to begin with.

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United is Introducing a New Confirmed Upgrade Program December 4th

by Gary Leff

Sep 24 2019

United shared this morning that they’re revamping their confirmed regional and global upgrade certificates that Platinum elites and higher are able to take advantage of effective December 4. They’re introducing a new upgrade points system to replace certificates called PlusPoints, and existing banked certificates will convert to PlusPoints at that time.

I received a briefing on the changes from Luc Bondar, United’s Vice President of Loyalty who is in charge of MileagePlus. Here’s how upgrades are changing.

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American Airlines Has No Interest in 100 Seat Aircraft, Plans to Buy More Used A319s Instead

by Gary Leff

american plane in hangar
Sep 23 2019

The Airbus A220 has been a popular aircraft. Delta was able to buy a large number of them cheap before Airbus took over sales of the program from Bombardier. It has a low cost of operations and can fly surprisingly long distances. The wide fuselage makes it a passenger favorite for comfort because each seat gets extra width.

American Airlines doesn’t have an interest in the A220. Instead, American plans to pick up more Airbus A319s on the used market super cheap – a cost driven down, in part, by the growing popularity of the A220.

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American Airlines CEO Doug Parker: His Boeing 737 MAXs Are Safe Today – Other Airlines’ May Not Be

by Gary Leff

inside plane
Sep 23 2019

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker says that the plane is safe to fly today – with American’s 737 MAX and using American’s pilots – suggesting that the delay in bringing the plane back into service is so that it’ll be safe even when operated by other airlines.

He dishes on how they’re scheduling the plane’s return to service, and whether or not delays have been the result of politics.

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IHG Rewards Club Points Will Become Redeemable at 500 Mr. and Mrs. Smith Luxury Hotels

by Gary Leff

Sep 23 2019

Starting “early next year” IHG Rewards Club is introducing a new earn and burn relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Smith hotels. There will also be some form of elite benefits at Mrs. and Mrs. Smith properties, because IHG says that their “most loyal members” (presumably Spire Elites, but also “including InterContinental Ambassadors and Kimpton Inner Circle members”) “can expect free room upgrades whenever available and a free gift, called a Smith Extra, on arrival at each Mr & Mrs Smith hotel.”

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What’s the Worst International First Class in the World?

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 22 2019

Now that BA has finally gotten their act together on internet – fuel surcharges on award tickets aside – I’d fly them over American, though I do think Qatar Airways QSuites is better than British Airways first class (and the new ANA business class seems like it may be as well).

Since I rank both Air China (as well as China Eastern) over American, and British Airways as well, is there any airline besides TAAG Angola at the bottom of the list if we were to put together an argument for absolute worst international first class in the world?

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The Great ‘Book Direct’ and Hotel ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ Scam

by Gary Leff

Sep 22 2019

The truth is that hotels do regularly sell rooms cheaper through third parties than they do on their own website, they just work really hard to disguise it and to gate off consumers from accessing those cheaper rates – because they want to fill incremental rooms that would go unsold, but without undercutting the prices they can book the rest of their rooms at.

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Gold Smuggler Caught Because He Was Unwilling to Pay Overweight Checked Bag Fees

by Gary Leff

Sep 22 2019

A man running a gold smuggling ring out of Singapore has pled guilty to corruption after airline check-in counter staff flipped on the operation. Apparently he wasn’t just shipping his gold as checked luggage, he was too cheap to pay the excess baggage fees and bribed counter staff to understate the weight of the bags on Tigerair flights to Chennai.

If he had been willing to pay for his checked bags, he might not have been caught.

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