Under pressure as a financial laggard in the industry, with their plans to partner with American Airlines and acquire Spirit dashed by the Biden administration, and with activist investor Carl Icahn taking a 10% stake in the carrier and gaining board seats the New York-based carrier is trying to reinvent its business.
An American Airlines passenger says she purchased a $2,000 ticket but was denied boarding over the clothing she was wearing. Gate agents called police. She complains that she’s being refused boarding over a ‘dress code’ but the airline ‘refuses to show’ her the dress code.
ITA Airways is the new Alitalia – a small Italian state airline that the EU keeps slow-walking Lufthansa’s ability to buy. It’s Alitalia with a new name, without some of its legacy costs, but with many of the same problems with its business model.
One thing that’s different about ITA Airways, though, is the frequent flyer program. ITA Airways is a member of SkyTeam but it only has limited participation. They don’t fully link up with all other members of the alliance.
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A woman on Southwest Airlines may have set a record by occupying 13 seats prior to departure. She boarded early and saved seats for 12 other passengers – four rows of seats seats apiece.
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.
On Friday, United Airlines flight 59 from Frankfurt to San Francisco had to turn around when a toilet overflowed. The Boeing 777-300ER was at 30,000 feet around 70 nautical miles northwest of Amsterdam when pilots asked to enter a holding pattern to troubleshoot the lav. Half an hour later they turned back.
Apparently one of the lavatory toilets “overflowed” and what was called “the soup” spilled into the cabin, with an unbearable stench.
With plenty of time, I went straight to the D terminal which has the best lounges. My first stop was the American Express Centurion lounge across from gate D12. I saw a line to get in.
According to data from Cirium, the price of U.S. domestic airfares are up 9% versus 2019, while inflation is up 19%. That means tickets are cheaper in real terms.
An American Airlines passenger, dubbed a Karen on reddit, demanded that a passenger assigned to a window seat move so that her child could have it, became extremely abusive. The woman threatened to sue the airline, and to sue the passenger at the window, when he wouldn’t move.
Finally cabin crew gave into the woman’s demands, accommodating her insistence on the window seat for her kid – by upgrading the passenger who had the window seat to business class. That incensed passenger Karen even more.
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 »
