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.
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.
On Thursday a Jet Airways Boeing 777-300 operating from Mumbai to London Heathrow with 330 passengers and 15 crew onboard lost radio contact with air traffic control as it was handed over from Bratislava to Prague Center.
The aircraft continued flying as expected, but without radio contact Germany sent two fighter jets to intercept.
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.
United is running a sale from Portland and Seattle to both Honolulu and Maui from $362 roundtrip. This is available from March through end of schedule.
American Airlines is running a sale from Houston to Honolulu from $475 roundtrip.
These fares won’t last long.
About a week ago I wrote that it’s the golden age of air travel with cheap fares all over the world. Most of those fares have been in economy, with sub-$400 roundtrips to Europe and Asia with amazing flash sales.
I certainly prefer travel in business class, and readers have been asking for those deals, and here may be the best recent deal yet.
There are some things I’ve covered in the past but that have tripped up readers in the past week so I thought I’d highlight them again.
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.
While I’ve been on plenty of planes that had to divert — because of weather, fuel, and the President’s flight path — I don’t recall ever diverting because someone onboard had taken ill.
Every single time Dr. Peter Maguire flies American Airlines he’s at the right place at the right time.
Upside is the new travel booking site from Priceline founder Jay Walker. It finally launched with full functionality last month. They raised $50 million on a $200 million valuation even before they were fully operational. And with all that marketing money they’re significantly overinvesting in getting you to make a booking now.
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 »
