Apr 16 2016

A Muslim woman was kicked off of her Southwest flight when she switched seats with another passenger.

She was connecting in Chicago, took a middle seat, and she asked if the passenger in the aisle seat would switch. That’s the strangest thing in the story, that an aisle seat passenger was willing to take a middle seat.

A flight attendant instructed the passenger that she wouldn’t be allowed to change to the aisle. When asked why, the flight attendant kicked her off the flight.

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Apr 16 2016

There’s a new economy seat that turns into a bed. It’s possibly an improvement over Air New Zealand’s ‘Sky Couch’. I especially like the demonstration of the ‘Piuma Sofa’ with mattress pads and bedding.

The pitch to airlines is not about passenger comfort (which wouldn’t sell too many airlines). It’s an ancillary revenue opportunity, so we may actually see it installed!

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Apr 16 2016

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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Apr 16 2016

Between July and November Virgin Australia is selling Los Angeles – Bali (via Brisbane or Sydney) for $568 roundtrip.

The fare is widely available, and should be bookable on most travel sites:

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Apr 16 2016

Earlier I wrote that Delta appeared to be having an unannounced award sale. Now they’ve announced it (HT: skdelta in the comments).

Of course the very idea of a ‘sale’ suggests that there are ‘regular prices’. We know that there are, Delta has inventory buckets and those buckets correspond to price charts. Despite Delta’s protestations to the contrary that prices are simply quoted at will, we know that all Delta has done is removed their award charts from public view in order to ensure members have less information. An uneducated consumer is SkyMiles’ best friend.

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Apr 15 2016

Alaska Airlines CEO sent an email to Virgin America employees about what they can expect as Alaska acquires Virgin America. I reproduce the full email below.

Brad Tilden shares that frontline employees likely won’t see cutbacks, and that there’s more opportunities with growth. He commits to share information as they know it. And that’s the best they can do, while recognizing the anxiety that employees feel.

Here’s the merger timeline that was shared with employees:

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Apr 15 2016

Delta is pricing business class awards to Europe over the summer for less than usual pricing. They haven’t announced a sale that I’m aware of.

Since Delta has run award sales before I’m assuming this is intentional, just announced. But without an announcement we also don’t know how long it will last. So book your summer SkyMiles Europe award travel now!

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Apr 15 2016

I just received the strangest offer from Starwood Preferred Guest. I’m offered double elite qualifying credit ‘between April 1 and June 30’. There are three strange things about it.

I guess this means I need to think about whether I want to be a Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum 75 member (24 hour check-in subject to availability, an extra Starpoint per dollar) or 100 night member (Ambassador status) for 2017. And despite the Marriott acquisition, SPG will remain a separate program in 2017.

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Apr 15 2016

Delta says their basic economy fares generated $20 million in incremental revenue during the first quarter.

On the one hand, it’s not that much in the context of $5.5 billion in domestic revenue for the quarter (so far these fares are only in domestic markets). If true, of course, since domestic revenue was up only 1.4% basic economy would account for the entire increase in year-over-year first quarter revenue. However, the figure is likely to be grossly exaggerated based on faulty assumptions.

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Apr 15 2016

Last week was United Airlines’ 90th birthday. Today is American Airlines’ 90th. Happy Birthday American Airlines.

American dates itself to 1926 and Robertson Aircraft Corporation, whose chief pilot was Charles Lindbergh. A number of small airlines such as Southern Air Transport, Southern Air Fast Express (‘SAFE”.. get it?), Universal Aviation and Colonial Air Transport were incorporated as American Airways in 1930, and then American Airlines in 1934.

In some ways, though I fly the airline most, I cannot figure them out.

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