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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.
One man hopped a British Airways plane out of Africa and made it the 11 hour journey across 5500 miles – and lived to tell the tale.
30 year old Themba Cabeka “held on to the jet’s undercarriage for the entire 11-hour flight from South Africa to London Heathrow in 2015.” He was discovered on the runway after the plane landed at Heathrow, and he was unconscious and hospitalized for six months. He was granted asylum and now lives in Liverpool. His friend for the journey wasn’t as lucky.
The Department of Transportation has finalized its rule increasing the minimum amount of cash an airline has to pay a passenger for involuntarily denying them boarding, and banning airlines from denying boarding to passengers that have already boarded. The rule increases the maximum amount airlines can be on the hook for when they mishandle domestic checked baggage as well. These changes go into effect April 13, 2021.
Frontier Airlines announced today that their 156 Airbus planes on order, which begin delivering in March, will receive Recaro’s slimline SL3710 seats. Slimline seats are known for passenger discomfort. They have less padding, and therefore take up less space. That lets airlines squeeze more passengers into the same amount of space. Frontier claims the sufferiing, though, is good for you because it’s good for the planet. Is that true?
At some point in 2021 “Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members will be eligible for free domestic upgrades on Alaska and MVP Gold 75K will be eligible for free domestic upgrades when traveling on American.” And “[w]hen the long-haul international flights launch” that are part of the partnership, Seattle – London and Bangalore then Alaska’s MVP Gold 75K members will be able to upgrade on American’s international flights. There will be access to extra legroom coach seats as well for top- and mid-tier elites.
There’s a long history of loyalty programs targeting people while they’re young, hoping to build a lifetime relationship with a customer. And some of those ideas are resurfacing today.
Seeing more efforts along these lines is a sign that loyalty matters again. When planes were full airlines didn’t have to work as hard building relationships with customers or marketing to fill empty seats. That’s all changed, and we’re beginning to see a renaissance of the frequent flyer program. Hopefully that spirit lasts even once we’re back to normal times and traveling again.
As part of the launch of the new program Air Canada has just announced a new suite of credit cards. The airline re-acquired its program, after spinning it off 15 years ago, funding the deal by extending its relationship with its co-brand card issuers. Today we’ve learned about its new co-brand credit cards in Canada. Details on a U.S. program are still forthcoming. We also learn about a new airline redemption partnership.
Holding the cards make award pricing less expensive, and spending on the cards can help earn Aeroplan elite status.
American Airlines now offers pre-flight rapid Covid-19 tests for passengers flying from Dallas Fort-Worth to both Honolulu and Maui. This allows passengers testing negative to skip quarantine on arrival.
But what happens if you test positive at the airport? American Airlines put out an internal memo on Wednesday explaining.
Star Alliance member Scandinavian Airlines has a shareholder program open to anyone who owns at least 4000 shares in the carrier. What’s most interesting is the benefit for those who own 100,000 shares, that those shares cost just 27 cents apiece, and that they’ve already received a government bailout which may protect downside.
The Government Accountability Office published a new report taking the Department of Transportation consumer complaint process to task noting that DOT doesn’t publish the results of 81% of their investigations. There’s little transparency into DOT complaints.
Aside from the recommendation to share more information about the process, what’s most interesting I think is the window that the report itself provides into what consumers are complaining about, and what complaints the Department of Transportation actually listens to.
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 »
