For years airlines ‘gave away the value of seat assignments for free’ to customers. That’s no longer true. And the tax code encourages airlines to charge for seats, too. That’s because base airfare for domestic flights is taxed at 7.5%, while fees aren’t covered by this excise tax. Airlines have an incentive to move money from the fare into fees.
An American Airlines passenger shared their ordeal boarding a flight with breast milk and being told they weren’t allowed to bring it on board, they’d have to ‘consolidate’ it into their carry on or give it up in order to fly.
The woman began crying and tried to show the agent her employer’s rules. Eventually she broke down, because the milk would spoil without being in the cooler packed with ice the way she was carrying it. She “squash[ed] some of it into [her] bag but couldn’t make it fit with the ice so most of it is unusable.”
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 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.
Earlier today I wrote about getting transatlantic business class awards for an unheard of 13,500 miles each way.
It turns out there’s an even better deal out there. Business class for practically free: just 1,500 points to fly business class to France.
Alaska is doing something special for their million milers: luggage tags made from the metal of former Alaska Airlines planes.
They’re gifting hand cut luggage tags made from the fuselage of their retired aircraft.
In October, an American Airlines crew created a makeshift barrier out of seat belts to keep passengers away.
Despite the broad attention that the crew of this flight generated, it has happened again on American Airlines.
This is one of the cheapest award sales ever. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue, which is a transfer partner of all of the major bank currencies, is offering transatlantic business class awards starting at 13,500 points each way.
While American shed highly unprofitable flying, they had been using pretty much all available windows for swing gates, gates that could be used for flying by any carrier. And that blocked others from significant expansion.
With their recent moves opening up the field I speculated that could mean Delta making good on its promise to create a focus city in Austin. They’ve been willing to stick by unprofitable flying like Seattle, buoyed by strong performance of their interior hubs and their lucrative American Express deal, making a bet on long-term performance.
Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan is tempting fate over another Christmas meltdown promising on Thursday that “it will never happen again.”
Bob Jordan should really “go outside, turn around three times and spit” so that he doesn’t “tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.”
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 »
