Thursday evening’s United Airlines UA946 Washington Dulles – Amsterdam flight was lightly loaded with just 82 passengers onboard — about two-thirds empty — declared an emergency while at 35,000 feet and 180 nautical miles Northwest of Shannon, Ireland.
The plane’s first officer reported that the captain had become incapacitated. They diverted to Shannon and landed 35 minutes later, where the captain was rushed to the hospital.
Non-stop award space in premium cabins between the US and Australia is one of the toughest things to find out of any frequent flyer award in the world.
And American has been anything but generous with premium cabin international award space generally, except during spurts when they open up space. I couple of days ago I wrote about just such a spurt.
Many foreign airlines have strict limits for cabin baggage. Americans aren’t used to this, they can pretty much drag anything onboard that is going to fit in an overhead bin as long as there’s still bin space available and certainly US airlines don’t weigh your rollaboard.
Whether Air France or Virgin Australia, airlines around the world take a different approach even for business class passengers. I do my best to avoid check-in counters when I’ve got heavy bags. If I can get a boarding pass online I will. But if I need to approach the counter, and they see my bag, they’re going to want to weigh it.
United recently said they think their United Clubs should charge more.
That’s after United raised the price of its clubs 18 months ago, raised the price of day passes a year ago (and started refusing access to holders of day passes at some lounges), and restricted paying club members to accessing lounges only when flying same day.
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.
Business class awards for 4 passengers, most days of the year, from half a dozen US gateways using United miles or points from Aeroplan, Avainca LifeMiles, ANA, Singapore, etc.
American AAdvantage is offering up to 20,000 bonus miles each way across the Pond for up to 4 one-way segments booked and flown between yesterday and March 31. Registration prior to travel with promo code NAS17 is required.
You can earn this bonus on American Airlines transatlantic flights (with American Airlines flight numbers) or American codeshares on British Airways, Iberia or Finnair between the U.S. and Europe.
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.
Japan Airlines is upgrading one of its two daily New York – Tokyo flights from a Boeing 787 to a Boeing 777. That means a lot more premium cabin seats, and tons of award space.
Here’s business class availability for 4 passengers New York JFK – Tokyo non-stop in April on Japan Airlines.
Non-stop award space in premium cabins between the US and Australia is one of the toughest things to find out of any frequent flyer award in the world.
And American has been anything but generous with premium cabin international award space generally, except during spurts when they open up space. So when they do you need to act quickly. And when they do for Australia and New Zealand it’s worth paying attention.
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 »
