30% Off Delta Awards to Europe, Business Class from 87,500 Roundtrip

by Gary Leff

Feb 17 2016

Delta e-mailed elite frequent flyers and co-brand credit card holders about an award sale yesterday. It’s advertising a pre-sale on award travel. In the past Delta has opened up award sales in advance to elites and cardholders before rolling the sale out to everyone. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the sale is bookable by all SkyMiles members shortly.

The advertised sale is for 30% off saver awards between the mainland US and many cities in Europe — 42,000 miles roundtrip in economy. However there are reports of business class also pricing 30% off for some routes (so 87,500 roundtrip).

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American Suing Gogo, Wants Faster Inflight Internet

by Gary Leff

American has some really old inflight internet installations on their planes, when my internet experience is slow I have to remind myself that they haven’t invested retrofitting planes with the latest-generation ‘air-to-ground’ (ATG4) service with Gogo and they haven’t placed any orders for 2Ku satellite internet (2Ku is faster and more expensive than air to ground).

As Delta transitions to 2Ku hopefully that will also relieve pressure on the air-to-ground network and improve speeds on American. It won’t increase the bandwidth that any plane has, but it might reduce some of Gogo’s network congestion. Improved internet was one of the five priorities I outlined for the airline now that they completed customer-facing integration of US Airways and American.

Andrea Ahles writes that American is now suing Gogo over its internet speed.

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$60,000 and Dead Body Found Inside US-Registered Cargo Jet

by Gary Leff

Feb 16 2016

A Western Global Airlines MD-11 has been impounded in Harare, Zimbabwe after a dead body and millions of dollars worth of South African Rand were found onboard. The plane had stopped enroute between Germany and South Africa.

The Florida-based cargo operator’s jet had landed in Zimbabwe for refueling. The aircraft had been refused a refueling stop in Mozambique.

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Using Korean’s Generous Award Hold Policy to Book Awards on Partners and Korean’s First Class

by Gary Leff

Feb 15 2016

Korean Air has the absolute best first class award availability. Most Korean flights will feature at least 2 first class award seats, but 3 and 4 is common on some routes. They offer great value Europe business class awards on partners and Hawaii awards on partners.

They also have one of the most generous policies that lets you put an award on hold without the points yet in your account. That gives you time to transfer points in from a credit card partner after you’ve already secured the award.

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Laser Takes Out Virgin Atlantic Pilot, Union Calls for Ban on Possessing Lasers

by Gary Leff

Feb 15 2016

Last night’s Virgin Atlantic flight VS25 from London Heathrow to New York JFK departed and was enroute to 36,000 feet 170 miles north-northwest of Shannon, Ireland when the crew declared a medical issue with the pilot.

They had experienced a laser pointed at the aircraft, and the pilot was feeling unwell. The aircraft was an hour into its journey when they turned back and landed at Heathrow an hour and 15 minutes later.

Shining a light at an aircraft in a manner to distract or harm the crew is already illegal. However,

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