Now That Pilots Get Upgraded To First Class Ahead of Passengers, Is Top Elite Status Worth It Anymore?

Feb 07 2024

Passengers express frustration as pilots receive upgrade priority over them, prompting a reassessment of the value of top-tier elite status versus the advantages of mid-tier benefits.

While there’s a tradeoff upgrading pilots versus passengers along a certain margin, that’s not the reason most elites are sitting in back most of the time – just a visible lightning rod. Still, re-evaluating loyalty and status makes sense.

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JetBlue Brings Back Marty St. George As New President

Feb 07 2024

The airline lost anti-trust trials over its partnership with American Airlines and its acquisition of Spirit Airlines (for which it was likely overpaying, and would be taking on significant operational complexity to execute the merger). And its CEO announced his exit.

JetBlue elevated airline President Joanna Geraghty to CEO-designate. Now they’ve made another big move.

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Rumor: United Airlines To Open Hub In Florida

Feb 07 2024

United Airlines has over 700 new aircraft on order, even excluding 45 Airbus A350s that until recent Boeing production issues were expected never to materialize. If demand develops to support that sort of growth (though many aircraft on order will allow the airline to replace existing planes) they are going to need more places to send them. And one gap is certainly the Southeastern United States.

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NTSB Report Confirms The Unraveling of Boeing: Missing Bolts and a Quality Control Crisis

Feb 06 2024

The Boeing 737 MAX 9 was temporarily grounded – and tremendous faith was lost in Boeing – after a the left mid exit door plug detached from Alaska Airlines aircraft N704AL while performing flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.

The NTSB has now issued a report on what happened, and it tracks what readers of View From The Wing already know: the plane left the factory missing bolts to hold the door plug on, and tracking of defects at Boeing seems to be a problem.

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