JetBlue’s award travel has been restricted, offering low value for their points and making transfers from credit card programs unattractive. However, the partnership with Qatar Airways now allows for point redemption for JetBlue flights, with a distance-based award chart and wide availability for transatlantic business class bookings.
The traditional hub-and-spoke model, once dictated by local traffic generating high fares, is being redefined by cities like Charlotte and Atlanta, which have become central nodes for connecting flights. Despite their non-central geographic locations, these hubs thrive by leveraging strategic north-south connections, outperforming traditional expectations and contributing to the evolving dynamics of airline profitability.
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.
A flight attendant working Aeromexcio flight 520 from Mexico City to Cancun was filmed taking video that appears to be up a passenger’s skirt as she walks by the galley of the Boeing 737 MAX to board.
The man appears to slide his phone across the galley floor, while pretending to check the drawer of a galley beverage cart. The camera moves as the passenger moves.
A Delta Air Lines passenger reclined her seat, and the woman behind her – she says – began pushing her seat back throughout the rest of the flight. In response, she didn’t ask for help from a flight attendant. Instead she began yelling at the woman behind her. And another passenger caught it on video.
The passengers behind the woman denied pushing her seat and that just drove the her to the brink, unleashing a tirade defending her right to recline. The battle had gone on silently until she just couldn’t take it anymore at the end of the flight.
The airline is required under its pilot deal to have 85% of its regional flying in and out of hubs (defined as the legacy American Airlines hubs, plus airports where they operate 100 or more flights). Austin isn’t a 100-plus flight city. American runs a peak of 78 flights (low 50s on Saturdays, 60s on Tuesday and Wednesday). They don’t have the gate space for more than that, and even if they did that would likely mean more losses. So Austin regional flying to non-hub cities falls under the pilot contract 15% of total regional flying cap.
American isn’t allowed to build an operation which doesn’t support mainline pilot union jobs, and given passenger demand and gate limitations in Austin that means they aren’t allowed to build an Austin focus city as they’ve been doing.
A woman shared video this month after being “pulled into a room” and “interrogated” in Turkey because she didn’t look like her passport photo. She’d “undergone different facial treatments, such as Botox” which contributed to the difference, and wound up “interrogated by 6 members of passport control.”
One of the most common complaints I see about airlines in social media, paired with photos, is overhead bins with plenty of space after a passenger is forced to check their carry-on bag because, the gate agent had said, ‘the bins were full’.
This is frustrating for customers, who aren’t just inconvenienced (separated from their belongings, they have to wait at baggage claim – and risk getting lost). It’s also perplexing. Why was the gate agent lying to us? The reason is actually simple.
A woman who flew American’s flight 2555 from Orlando to Dallas – Fort Worth on Tuesday was in seat 15A. The middle seat beside her was empty, and she says the man 15C “violated her.” She reported the incident to flight attendants, filmed it, and nothing was done.
American Airlines has loaded a schedule that pulls down about half the routes from its Austin focus city, as first reported by Adrian Waltz based on data available in Cirium’s Diio Mi. Eliminated in the schedule load were 21 out of American’s 46 destinations from Austin.
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 »
