A month ago United introduced Basic Economy fares on nearly all domestic flights other than Hawaii routes.
By preventing customers from reserving seats when they buy their tickets, and having them board last without full-sized carry on bags, they’re trying to make the travel experience miserable enough that customers will spend more money in order to avoid the restrictions.
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.
Shirley Yamauchi was flying Houston – Boston last week for a teacher conference and brought her 27 month old son. His ticket cost $1000.
They boarded in Houston for the 1600 mile flight and he was seated in his seat but another passenger — who was cleared off the standby list — appeared with a boarding pass for the seat.
The electronics ban has been lifted on Emirates and Turkish flights to the U.S.. The ban on electronics onboard Saudi flights to the U.S. is expected to be lifted by July 19.
Justin Cho and his family were preparing to board Delta flight DL937 from Los Angeles to Cancun on Friday. They tried to board the flight during priority boarding and were told to wait.
The father had his boarding pass scanned first. Since the rest of the family were several people back he waited for them before entering the jetway. And he got into an altercation with a Delta gate agent as a result.
The airline’s yield “was down 9.2% and overall load factors down by 1.2%” after making the change to their program, though of course program changes alone weren’t the drivers. However this ‘focus on high yield passengers’ didn’t lead to higher yields. It just chased away customers buying mid-range fares.
This seems as though it might be a cautionary tale for others.
British Airways doesn’t have a very good business class. It’s terribly expensive when redeeming miles thanks to choke-worthy fuel surcharges which continue even in an era of $45 oil. For transatlantic flying to and from the U.S. both American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are better. I’m not a fan of Delta’s 767s, but DeltaOne is probably better than British Airways business class.
However it makes sense to buy British Airways when it’s super cheap.
After a great time visiting my family in the Sydney suburbs and staying at the Park Hyatt Sydney for four nights it was time to move on.
Since we were in Sydney anyway Singapore seemed pretty much close enough, a short-ish flight away and an opportunity to eat some great food. Singapore is one of my favorite food cities in the world along with Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
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.
Dr. David Dao thrust airline overbooking policies into the national spotlight in April.
Airlines quickly revised their policies. American Airlines has quietly made one more change to their procedure to handling overbooking situations.
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 »
