According to an internal memo, United is boarding planes two minutes slower than they were prior to the pandemic. And so they’re moving to what they call WILMA, which is basically ‘Window Middle Aisle,” and adding a new sixth boarding group for domestic flights.
American Airlines is adding a seasonal route network from the Northeast to summer seaside destinations in and around Cape Cod as well as Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Previously most of these destinations would have been served to American’s customers by JetBlue, but that partnership is mostly through winding down after a district court judge ruled against it in an anti-trust case.
CEO Ed Bastian reported that they are “getting good feedback” from customers and that they “had too many changes rolled out at the same time” and that’s why they needed to go back and “reassess” the planned rollout for new elite qualification levels.
He contends that the vitriol from SkyMiles members simply shows their “intense loyalty to Delta” and that “most everyone agrees” Delta needed to make changes because they have more premium customers than they have premium assets to offer.
El Al doesn’t fly on Shabbat, from sundown Friday evening until sundown Saturday evening, as a religious observance. However they will operate from both the New York and Bangkok this Saturday to assist in bringing reservists back to Israel as part of the country’s call up of 360,000 (4% of their population).
El Al will not be charging for these flights. Instead, the cost “will be borne by El Al and large US financial institutions” according to the airline.
Israel’s air force has reportedly taken out both the Damascus and Aleppo airports in Syria. This follows Hezbollah claiming responsibility for firing anti-tank guided missiles into Israel yesterday, as well as missiles fired from Syria that Hamas claims credit for.
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.
At Baltimore Washington International airport a man who claimed to have a bomb in his vehicle was arrested. There were also multiple stabbings at the Atlanta airport this afternoon. One of the three victims was a police officer.
The current status program was itself a big improvement, and it appears that the 2024 changes are generally improvements as well.
British Airways flight 165 from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv turned around while on final approach on Wednesday, as Hamas launched a rocket attack at the city. The carrier had been operating a single daytime flight, allowing crew to immediately return to London, however has now decided to suspend operations to Israel.
Passengers on the flight took a 9 hour 47 minute flight to nowhere, and options to fly into the country are increasingly limited.
The FAA is considering a rule to treat public charters the same way as large commercial airlines, rewriting rules going back 30 years. This would mean that co-pilots for carriers like JSX and the proposed SkyWest Charter could only employ co-pilots with 1,500 hours of training (whether in a tethered hot air balloon or otherwise) and JSX wouldn’t be able to fly from private terminals.
JSX emailed all of their customers asking them to comment on the FAA’s proposed rulemaking. Over 20,000 people filed comments to oppose these changes. Does that matter?
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 »
