Frank Bruni packs a ton of complaints about aviation into a single New York Times column, which really is meant as an allegory for his complaints about society as a whole. He packs a lot of disparate complaints into one column! lack of infrastructure investment poor manners inequality The ‘rich get richer’ theme doesn’t especially work in aviation, at least in the US context he’s describing since airfares have gotten far lower over time in inflation-adjusted dollars, even after including all add-on fees and even with the run-up over the past two years. legroom hasn’t gotten materially worse, even with JetBlue adding seats and American adding seats. In fact US carriers have been adding extra legroom seating that offer a mid-range product between economy and first class, it’s easy to forget that “economy plus” is…
New Newark – London Service Coming Offering Business Class for the Price of Coach
La Compagnie, the all-business class airline flying Paris – Newark with angled seats and just 3 flight attendants for a 74 passenger cabin, will use its second 757 that’s about to be delivered to fly from a London area airport to Newark. No details are announced yet as far as whether they’ll serve Gatwick, Luton, or Stansted. La Compagnie brags about a load factor hovering around 50%, at deep discount pricing. So clearly the time is ripe to enter a second market (and clearly with only a 50% load factor, adding a second Paris flight would make no sense). The founders of La Compagnie are the same folks that were behind L’Avion, who won the lottery managing to sell the operation to the British Airways which now operates it as OpenSkies. They re-entered the market…
The Worst Security Line Ever? United’s Worst Twitter Fail? And Buying Avios Via Magazine Subscriptions
News and notes from around the interweb: TSA Line at Chicago Midway Stretched Over a Mile Long 12,000 Avios for £155 with best-ever Iberia / Economist offer Does Washington Dulles — IAD — stand for Inside a Dump, I Advocate Demolition (of the C/D terminal), Incompetent AirLounge Dragons, or International Arrivals Disaster? I pay for Gogo’s unlimited monthly internet plan for American and US Airways, grandfathered at the old rate of $39.95 per month. I get great use out of it, and it’s changed my flying life. They offer an unlimited plan across airlines for a bit more, that I didn’t sign up for under old pricing and that I don’t want to give up my old grandfathered pricing for. Now that Gogo is offering international service on more flights (on Delta and Japan Airlines)…
Is It Possible to Fly Too Much?
Reader BOShappyflyer wants to know if I get sick of traveling? You travel a lot. Do you ever get tired of traveling? 😉 What do you learn more from your travels? I ask because I recently did a 3 country trip in under 3 weeks on a total of 8 segments. I really love flying, but I think I’m done flying for a little while. I want to enjoy my adventures (on land) and then I’ll start thinking about my next trip for next year …a little later in the year when I get a break from work. I certainly don’t travel as much as many people do. All-in I fly about 200,000 miles a year and spend a little over a third of the year in hotel rooms. That’s a lot by the standards…
About 50 Homeless Live at the Frankfurt Airport
About 50 homeless people live at the Frankfurt airport. It’s a public space, they can’t be kicked out. It’s heated, and open 24 hours a day — so no need to leave at closing time. Here’s a news report in German focusing on one man who has been there over two years. He collects cans for the deposit money, earning about 7 euros a day. In a similar situation I think I’d try to mock up an online account showing frequent flyer status, match over to Star Gold, and buy a refundable airline ticket. Or really save up and buy the cheapest changeable business class ticket possible Then I’d eat free for a year like this guy did, and even have access to complimentary showers. (HT: Flyertalk) You can join the 40,000+ people who see…
This Guy Claims JetBlue Banned Him. I’m Just Glad I Don’t Have to Sit Next to Him!
Apparently things started because the video’s creator ran into an issue with a JetBlue booking, didn’t get a confirmation, and is unhappy with the customer service JetBlue provided (although he acknowledges that JetBlue offered to reduce their change fee for him). In response to what he considered unhelpful customer service, he sent out a series of tweets naming the customer service agent he dealt with. And he was apparently no longer welcome to fly the airline. This is, of course, only his version of the story. He claims that JetBlue “hates fags” though it should be noted that JetBlue “has earned the top score of 100 percent on the 2015 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a leading survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.”.…
Flyertalk: the YouTube Episode
It moves pretty slowly but is cute enough. “But I am Sky Priority!” “Can you do something about the gate lice?” Some will enjoy it: You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Things That Get Flight Attendants Fired, a 75,000 Point Signup Bonus, and the Most Uncomfortable Airline Seat in the World
News and notes from around the interweb: Are United’s new Slimline seats the most uncomfortable in the sky? What airplane seats were like in the 1970s Things that get you fired as a Turkish Airlines flight attendant Next Saturday Pittsburgh airport is inviting everyone to come airside to do some shopping (HT: @JohnnyJet) Doctor of Credit says you can get an American Express Business Gold Rewards card with a 75,000 point signup bonus offer. Club Carlson is offering 100% bonus on purchased points for Cyber Monday. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Etihad Upgrading Their Premium Services — Starting Right Away!
I love the way that the Middle Eastern carriers are elevating the travel experience, in many ways beyond what’s supported economically by a profitable business model for the airline narrowly conceived. Here’s Etihad’s strategy for lighting huge sums of money on fire to build Abu Dhabi into a global aviation hub, investing in money-losing airlines the world over in order to direct connecting traffic through the capital of the UAE. Towards this end they’re also continually evolving their product. And they’ve just announced improvements to the service and amenities going into effect December 1. Here’s the new first class soft product improvements: And the new business soft product, although the description may describe a hard product improvement as well: Economy is getting some new features as well: It seems like some of these changes are…
Time to Act: Here’s What to Tell Delta and United About Their New Frequent Flyer Programs
Frequent flyer programs do roll back changes — but don’t like to admit they’re wrong when they do it. American did just that when they introduced a $5 online award booking fee that never went into effect. The idea was dropped, no announcement. Because it was stupid. Here are five more heroic times when consumers won against frequent flyer program changes. If you don’t like Delta’s revenue-based frequent flyer program coming in 2015, or United’s copy cat version of the same and the gutting of the United mileage currency, there’s something you should do about it. Put your money where your mouth is, buy tickets from airlines offering you a better value proposition. Fly American and Alaska Airlines. Status match. Earn status with American or Alaska. Let American and Alaska know why you’re buying tickets…
