Feb 21 2017

Basic Economy fares take the lowest fare being offered by an airline, and work to give customers less. Delta started by restricting changes and seat assignments. United and American doubled down by saying that whereas you can even pay for a carry on bag flying Spirit Airlines, they won’t let you bring one on at all.

On the same day that American Airlines went live selling Basic Economy fares on ten routes, United has also announced the sale of Basic Economy between Minneapolis St. Paul and United hubs.

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Feb 21 2017

American announced last month that dreaded basic economy fares were coming. These fares are now on sale for travel starting March 1. These are not new lower fares. These are new restrictions on the lowest fares American already offers.

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Feb 21 2017

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.

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Feb 21 2017

Airport security — along with customers and border patrol — at New York JFK is something in a special league of its own. Whether it’s a plane full of passengers from Mexico being allowed to skip immigration or a plane full of passengers from Mexico being allowed to skip immigration, New York JFK is home to the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. And the (TSA) gang who ran through the terminal screaming maniacally about a bomb and a shooting victim (neither of which were real).

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Feb 20 2017

Last week I flew United’s pre-inaugural VIP and media flight for its new Boeing 777-300ER, the first aircraft with new Polaris business class seats, and got to try their new Polaris soft product for the first time as well.

Since the flight was from Chicago to San Francisco I was able to experience the new United Polaris business class lounge at O’Hare which is by gate C18.

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Feb 20 2017

Three years ago Delta declared that if inflight cell phone calls were made legal they would ban the calls themselves. Most passengers are against inflight phone calls because they find air travel to be blissful, a peaceful oasis they never complain about now.

United has now taken the same position.

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Feb 20 2017

Three years ago I wrote a post on getting the most value out of Virgin Atlantic miles.

My contention was that Virgin Atlantic’s miles were among the least valuable currencies, but that there are actually some incredible sweet spots that most people don’t consider.

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Feb 20 2017

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.

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Feb 19 2017

More than three years into the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, there’s been little effort to offer a consistent product across the two fleets. US Airways aircraft for the most part haven’t been given “Main Cabin Extra” extra legroom seating in coach, and they haven’t even been given power ports.

US Airways management, after all, removed power from the Airbus planes they inherited when American West took over US Airways a dozen years ago.

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Feb 19 2017

I’ve given American AAdvantage a hard time about award availability on American Airlines flights, and deservedly so. At one point things were so bad that the short distance Austin – Dallas had only six days during the year with a single flight offering a saver award, despite over 10 flights a day usually costing just $49.

However they’ve also been releasing a decent amount of space over the past week and a half or so. That seems to be the pattern — award space dries up, then there’s a bit of space briefly, before drying up again.

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