J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Baker points out that American Airlines has provided guidance that their third quarter operating margin will decline by over 700 basis points, and that American hasn’t done this poorly outside of Covid in the last thirteen years – and they’re guiding to performance over 800 basis points worse than Delta. And they don’t explain what’s going on.
United Airlines flight 871 from San Francisco to Taipei diverted and returned back to the U.S. on Thursday when a coach passenger refused to stay in their cabin. They kept going up into business class, and refused to stay in their seat. In grist for inequality commentators everywhere, two hours into the thirteen hour flight, the captain made the decision to turn back.
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.
ITA Airways is the new Alitalia. They’re a member of SkyTeam, but only partially. You can’t redeem Delta miles to travel with them, for instance. But you can now redeem Virgin Atlantic miles. Their business class is good, availability is good, and there are no fuel surcharges.
After your flight lands you’re supposed to keep your seat belt buckled until the pilot parks at the gate and turns off the seat belt sign. Although if you’ve been on any commercial flight in the past decade you know that’s not what happens.
At the very latest once the plane stops (you might still not be at the gate, and will move again) passengers start to take off their seat belts, gather their belongings and sometimes even make their way into the aisle.
When my wife was growing up, her father told her that before she got truly serious in a relationship she needed to take a cross country greyhound with the guy first. Thank goodness she didn’t present long haul bus travel to me as a test. She didn’t need to. She already knew how I acted in an airport.
When you check luggage, and your bags leave your possession, you trust the airline to handle it with care. They’re supposed to take it to your plane, load it, unload it at the destination and deliver it to baggage claim. And nothing else.
But that’s not always how it works.
During their second quarter earnings call, Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja explained why they believe they’ll still succeed in New York, without their alliance with JetBlue.
Footage from Chinese social media shows an airline passenger melting down earlier this year. He said he was caught in a “time loop” – this was his sixth cycle through. The flight already crashed, everyone died, but he’s returned to this point and was warning everyone. He said they were destined for the same fate as Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
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.
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 »
