Passengers have suffered from increased delays and cancellations due to maintenance issues as tensions have flared.
Three items stand out from yesterday’s court hearing on the American Airlines lawsuit against the unions representing its mechanics, arguing that the Transportation Workers Union (legacy American) and the International Association of Machinists (legacy US Airways) have been engaged in an illegal job action meant to slow down the airline.
This morning I learned the shocking story of a United Airlines unaccompanied minor being put on a flight to Germany instead of Sweden.
Though an adult put him on the plane — a flight he didn’t have a boarding pass for — he realized he was heading to Germany and let his mother know. That began an odyssey during which she desperately tried to get United’s help to stop the plane from taking off with her son on it. She tweeted, she called, she sat on hold for over an hour and tried to get supervisors to do something. But how did this even happen?
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.
When you’re flying a European holiday airline, you’re likely if passengers are wearing any clothing at all. And if the budget carrier is flying between the UK and the south of Spain it’s a miracle if they’re sober enough to make it to their seats unassisted.
So the biggest news in a woman being booted off an easyJet flight from Malaga to London Stansted on June 23 was that she still had on her top at all.
American Airlines is going to fly a Stand Up to Cancer-wrapped plane and anyone who contributes $25 or more can add a name to the wrapping that will go on the aircraft as a way of honoring a survivor of cancer, someone who is battling it now, or someone that has passed.
Make a donation of $25 or more to Stand Up To Cancer in July and add the name of someone you’d like to honor to an American Airlines Airbus A321.
Last night Brenda Berg reported on Twitter that her son had flown as an unaccompanied minor on United Airlines from Raleigh Durham to Newark, intending to connect on to Stockholm on SAS. However United put him on a Eurowings flight to Germany instead.
I can only imagine this woman’s horror because she couldn’t even get through to United. If you don’t have elite status telephone wait times are interminable, and that’s just to get access to an agent without much motivation or empowerment to do anything that requires more than keystrokes on their computer.
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.
The campaign by U.S. airlines for trade subsidies from the federal government could backfire, because if the U.S. violates its treaty obligations and Europe then sees the treaty as non-absolute, United, Delta, and American could face their own challenges with operating rights in Europe.
Capital One has just announced a 25% bonus on all miles transferred to Avianca LifeMiles in July.
Already on their fourth transfer bonus of the year, having just launched transferable points, and Capital One notes “limited-time offers like this will be another major perk for Venture and Spark Miles account holders to take advantage of.” So we can certainly expect to see more.
While it doesn’t happen often, lithium ion batteries catch fire. The fire can usually be contained in the passenger cabin. It’s harder to deal with as cargo, which is why airlines don’t allow these sorts of batteries to travel in checked luggage.
As a result of this risk American Airlines now boards fire containment bags and heat resistant gloves on all of their aircraft.
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 »
