Will United’s Flight Attendants Finally Get a Contract and Finish the Airline’s Merger? Not Everyone is Happy.

by Gary Leff

Jul 10 2016

United and Continental merged in 2010, with Continental management eventually taking over, but six years later that merger is still not complete.

Legacy United and Continental flight attendants still do not operate under a single contract, and as a result United flight attendants work United planes and Continental flight attendants work Continental planes — and new aircraft get split between them.

A couple of weeks ago – finally – United and its flight attendants came to terms on a joint contract. Here’s a union summary of the deal (.pdf) showing that wages go up substantially.

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127,500 Miles from One Credit Card Signup and Meeting Minimum Spend

by Gary Leff

Jul 10 2016

It’s a Bank of America offer of up to 90,000 bonus miles for a card that earns 1.5 miles per dollar on all of your spend. I’d stop at earning 75,000 bonus miles, but if you go all the way you’ll earn 127,500 miles including the miles from your spending.

Virgin Atlantic miles aren’t the best miles, but this is a great bonus from a bank you may not already have any rewards cards from.

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Delta Award Sale: Flights as Low as 5000 Miles

by Gary Leff

Jul 10 2016

Delta is running a domestic economy (and extra legroom seating) award sale. At least they tell us it’s a sale, which means there are regular prices, even though Delta hides what those regular prices are (“an ignorant customer is their best customer”).

At the upper end of value, Chicago Midway – Atlanta is on sale for 5000 miles (and tax of $5.60). That’s better than paying 12,500 miles of course for the same flight. And its actually a good deal. Normally when we see these sales 5000 mile awards correspond to flights less than $90. This time 5000 miles can save you nearly $200.

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Inflight Beer on Tap Launching on KLM Next Month

by Gary Leff

Jul 09 2016

SkyTeam member KLM has been working with Dutch brewery Heineken on a way to offer draft beer inflight.

This is a technical challenge. Most planes are pressurized to 8000 feet, and new aircraft like Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s to 6000 feet.

With less air pressure in the cabin than on the ground, it isn’t just taste buds that change. A beer tap will “only dispense a huge amount of foam” according to Heineken’s Edwin Griffioen.

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