American Airlines has started hiding the ball on basic economy restrictions when you book travel on their website. They’re showing lower prices than what passengers can expect to pay, and find there’s a bait and switch when they click through only to learn that they were seeing basic economy fares and American hadn’t told them when they first displayed schedule and price.
I genuinely don’t understand what American Airlines is thinking here.
A decade ago Hyatt’s growth was almost entirely in select service. Sure, Hyatt Gold Passport was a great program but how many hotels had suites to upgrade into? And how many had club lounges? Their footprint was small and they were adding Hyatt Places where benefits are sparse to non-existent.
The recent FAA Reauthorization Bill contains 5 new roundtrips that DOT can assign ‘beyond the perimeter’ and airlines are jockeying for those. What’s odd, though is that Spirit Airlines is asking for National Airport to San Jose, the new slots are limited to incumbent airlines at the airport, and Spirit doesn’t serve National airport.
American Airlines released a shareholder presentation supporting its positions on votes at the carrier’s annual meeting. Most of the ink is spilled over CEO Robert Isom’s $31.4 million pay package, which consists in part of retro pay at a time that retro pay is the most contentious issue at the end of labor negotiations with flight attendants.
Business class award space is wide open on Star Alliance member Swiss. You’ll find availability from New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and even from Los Angeles and San Francisco, with two passengers easy to find and some dates offering as many as 9 or more seats on the same flights.
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Virgin Atlantic has raised the price of ANA awards again. Last March they raised the price of ANA first class awards without notice by as much as 42%. This change focuses primarily on business class.
British Airways and JetBlue have filed with the Department of Transportation to codeshare. And BA’s transatlantic business suffers from American Airlines weakness with corporate accounts in cities like New York and Boston.
On Monday Singapore Airlines flight 321 from London Heathrow to Singapore experienced severe turbulence, causing injuries to passengers and crew and one passenger even died. The flight diverted to Bangkok to provide medical care. Since then, and this is very much a secondary story, the response from Singapore Airlines has been exemplary.
The best value at Southwest Airlines is the Companion Pass, where you can bring someone with you on all of your trips for just the cost of taxes. This is normally earned through a year’s worth of travel, credit card bonuses and spend and hotel bookings. But Southwest has also offered it on a promotional basis. Recently they’ve offered a Companion Pass to use for a limited time after taking just a single roundtrip as a way to goose business during a slow period, and making it available to use during another anticipated slow period. It’s something we’ve seen at least three times. Now, Southwest has a twist on the offer where that single roundtrip must be to a specific destination: Hawaii. Register then purchase two one ways or one roundtrip by May 24, 2024…
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 »
