American Express has added a new Membership Rewards transfer partner: Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio and generally post instantly.
Spending Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for new partner Starlux went live today. And availability between the U.S. and Taipei, Taiwan is amazing. You will frequently find seven or more business class award seats available if you wish to travel to Asia. And redemption pricing is good!
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 picture of an aircraft wing with more speed tape on it than I’ve ever seen in my life has been making the rounds in social media, under the caption “This is my last time flying with Spirit Airlines!!!!!”
This is not a Spirit Airlines aircraft.
Etihad has relaunched Airbus A380 service on the London – Abu Dhabi route, and First Apartment award seats are wide open between now and early June 2024.
American Airlines flight attendant Elizabeth Braley shared an incident that happened on her way home after an international trip. A red sedan cut her off on the road several times. The driver seemed to be “trying to run [her] off the road.” The crewmember tried to avoid the sedan, to get out of the way, and to otherwise flee to safety. But, she says, the driver kept at it.
Finally the sedan pulls up next to the flight attendant’s car and yells insults at American Airlines and throws things at her. She “almost wrecked” multiple times.
JSX, which operates from private terminals, was operating a full flight of 30 passengers out of Las Vegas to Los Angeles on Thursday where a baggage loader broke after the external air conditioning unit had been disconnected. As a result everyone sat on board without air while bag loading finished. And then the plane was stuck with a long taxi across the airport. While the Embraer ERJ-145 has air conditioning, it couldn’t keep up with the heat on the ground.
Social standards have evolved. Who is flying is different in the airline’s telling, it’s less corporate travelers and more leisure travelers. So it may be appropriate to update the airline’s image – something many other airlines are ahead of American on. And that’s something that will be taken up for flight attendants as well as passenger service agents.
Smaller regional jets don’t have overhead bins that will hold regular-sized carry on bags. On those planes, passengers usually tag them at the gate and drop them off at the bottom of the jet bridge before getting on the plane. Those bags are then returned to the jet bridge on arrival – customers don’t have to go to baggage claim to collect them. It’s (usually) a much faster process.
One problem airlines face, though, is that while people put their names and other identifying information on checked bags, they often don’t tag their carry on bags.
American Airlines has shared with employees that it won’t be retiring any more aircraft types through 2030. In total, they’ll take delivery of 23 new planes this year, and they will consider an order of new narrowbody aircraft for 2027.
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 »
