This week’s issue of Airline Weekly (subscription) contains charts on the largest airlines in each of the largest country markets in East Asia, based on Diio Mi data on scheduled seats in 2018.
The biggest takeaways are the growth of Chinese carriers and the declining importance in Southeast Asia of national carriers relative to low cost carriers which are overtaking them, especially on short haul and domestic routes.
Airline deregulation was opposed by nearly all US airlines in 1978. It was championed by Senator Ted Kennedy (and his aide now Justice Stephen Breyer) and by consumer advocate Ralph Nader and signed into law by Jimmy Carter.
Bob Crandall was against deregulation then, and he’s against it now in retirement. And he’s blaming it for cramped airline seating. He also calls codesharing a ‘fraud’ to fool people.
Most days from June through end of schedule there are 8 or more business class saver award seats available on Delta’s Detroit – Honolulu flight which features lie flat seats. Here’s how to get them for 32% fewer miles than Delta charges.
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.
A really great burger starts with quality beef. It should have processed cheese that melts well. And it should be inside of a potato bun, sesame seed if you must.
Don’t use ciabatta bread or a kaiser roll. As good as brioche can be, it’s not well-matched to a burger. The bun is a delivery vehicle for the burger. It needs to be big enough to contain the burger, but shouldn’t be so large that it overwhelms the contents – especially the meat.
Everything you put on the burger needs to fit inside of the bun. You don’t want the burger to fall apart when you eat it, and it shouldn’t be overstuffed. The goal is a balance of flavors inside, getting a combination of everything with each bite rather than winding up with pieces of meat or pieces of bun leftover at the end.
United reportedly has an effort to go after customers specifically that utilize Skiplagged to fly hidden city itineraries on the airline.
In one case they’re demanding payment of over $3000 and threatening to shut down the member’s frequent flyer account and ban then from the airline. They are also threatening to send this to collections. That would damage the member’s credit report.
When a plane has to divert you want the process to go as quickly as possible. At the end of a long transoceanic flight the last thing you want is to sit on the ground an extra four hours, not permitted to leave the aircraft. I have to feel especially for passengers in coach on that 767. American’s CEO himself says that plane is a bad experience and they know that their fleet of the aircraft has reliability issues.
Air Italy — which is 49% owned by Qatar Airways and has leased aircraft from Qatar — loaned an Airbus A330-200 to Finnair. This was after a loading vehicle at Chicago O’Hare took out a Finnair A330-300.
Finnair of course is a member of the oneworld alliance, and an anti-trust immunized joint venture partner across the Atlantic with American Airlines (along with British Airways and Iberia). And they’ll be using the Air Italy plan until October 31 for flights to Chicago and Miami.
Here is, as they say, ‘the rest of the story’.
Pulling up Royal Air Maroc fares between Washington Dulles and Barcelona brings up pricing around $1700 which is great in itself. They fly Boeing 787s with lie flat business class between Washington Dulles and Casablanca. From there it’s a short 737 flight to many destinations in Europe.
But it gets better. Skyscanner is coming up with sites selling it even cheaper — from $1490 roundtrip. Roundtrip business class fares are available between $1500 and $1700 to several other destinations like Madrid, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Milan, and Amsterdam.
McKinsey & Co has a new report “How to improve airline customer-loyalty programs.”
It begins by outlining the challenge airlines face managing the balance between printing miles and making award seats available for redemption.
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 »
