New American Airlines Small Business Program Earns AAdvantage Miles, Faster Elite Status

by Gary Leff

Oct 16 2023

American Airlines is replacing its small business loyalty program Business ExtrAA with the new AAdvantage Business which is now available. Instead of having a completely separate program, small businesses will earn AAdvantage miles in their own account on top of the miles earned by travelers, and they’ll redeem miles just like consumers will.

That’s a simpler system, and there’s one clear benefit for travelers: they will earn one additional loyalty point towards their status per dollar spent when adding an AAdvantage for Business account number to their reservation.

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With More Passengers Than Seats, Dozens Sit On Floor Of El Al Flight To Israel

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2023

One passenger who flew from Tokyo to Bangkok in order to catch the 9 hour 45 minute El Al flight from Tel Aviv shared the story of scores of young people trying to get on in order to heed their call up in the reserves or enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces. There were far more hopeful passengers than seats. With the captain’s permission, those people flew anyway.

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What Happened To The Gaza International Airport Is What’s Happening Again Today In Israel

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2023

It wasn’t always this hopeless. Things seemed so much better at the turn of the last century. The 1995 Oslo II Accord included international funding for Yasser Arafat International Airport in the Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands donated a Boeing 727 and 2 Fokker 50s to help launch Palestinian Airlines.

The new Gaza airport opened in 1998, and Bill and Hillary Clinton attended the official grand opening. At the time there were plans for a port and for a… casino!

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Delta Air Lines Concedes: United Or American Will Take Our Slot At Tokyo Haneda Airport

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2023

I thought Delta would have a good chance keeping the slot if it proposed a New York JFK flight (a new competitor on the route in an important market, and ironically one with much better connectivity now that the Department of Justice forced American and JetBlue to break up their partnership). I also thought that the best shot of winning would be new service from a market that currently lacks a non-stop to Tokyo, such as Miami (or Orlando).

However Delta is telling its employees that the slot will go to American or to United.

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A Record 75,000 Consumers Filed Complaints That Major Airlines Took Over DOT To Quash Competition

by Gary Leff

Oct 14 2023

The FAA’s docket on public charter regulation advocated by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines has closed.

So far over 58,000 public comments have been posted to Regulations.gov. JSX says the number of submitted comments is 76,000 (there is a lag in posting comments to the web). Already it’s the most comments ever received on a Department of Transportation or FAA proposed rule. Drones topped 50,000. Emotional support animals topped 15,000. Usually there are just a handful.

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