European Court To Rule If It’s Sexist To Give Flight Attendants Less Than Pilots For Meals, Hotels

by Gary Leff

Apr 06 2023

Pilots have a lot more sway at airlines than flight attendants. It’s harder to become a pilot, in part because government regulations make doing so time-consuming and costly. That makes it hard to replace pilots. Pilots also have a lot more say over an airline’s operation, so can slow it down dramatically.

Those are important reasons why pilots are paid more. They receive better benefits. And their life on the road often features better hotels, better ground transportation, and higher meal allowances. Is that… fair?

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New U.S. Senator Blasts United Airlines, Posts His MileagePlus Number To Twitter

by Gary Leff

Apr 06 2023

New U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) got frustrated with United Airlines and tweeted out his boarding pass, complete with reservation number and MileagePlus number.

Vance had blasted United Airlines for something that airline passengers are frustrated with all the time – the failure to update customers in a timely manner. In this case the plane hadn’t yet boarded at the scheduled boarding time, but was still showing as though it would.

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Airline Forgets To Send Arriving Passengers To Customs, Now They Have To Return To JFK Airport

by Gary Leff

passport getting stamped
Apr 06 2023

A passenger off of a transatlantic flight to New York has shared what happened when they were accidentally directed straight out of JFK airport – instead of being directed to immigration.

They were sent a note by the airline that they had to return to New York JFK airport the next day and given a specific time to do so in order to present themselves to the U.S. government.

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Airbus Puts American Airlines On Blast For Losing Their Luggage, Then Claims To Be Hacked

by Gary Leff

american plane
Apr 06 2023

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus tweeted on Wednesday evening that American Airlines lost their luggage. Someone had flown into Washington, D.C. where Airbus has its headquarters, and the airline failed to deliver their bags – or to send the bags out to the customer when they said to expect them. American Airlines is the largest operator of Airbus aircraft.

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7 Quick Takeaways From American Airlines Eliminating “Saver” Award Travel

by Gary Leff

an airplane on the runway
Apr 05 2023

American Airlines has eliminated its ‘saver’ and ‘anytime’ awards. Now when you’re using American’s miles to fly American Airlines, the only option is web special awards, which have been renamed Flight Awards. Nothing else changes at this time, though a number of things flow from this decision.

Most awards were already web specials. There’s a new award chart, but it doesn’t provide very much information. Overall I consider the change negative, but mostly just recognizing past devaluations rather than representing a new devaluation.

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American AAdvantage Ends Saver And Anytime Awards: Everything You Need To Know

by Gary Leff

Apr 05 2023

American Airlines has eliminated Saver and Anytime awards, and replaced those award charts with a new ‘starting from’ pricing chart for American Airlines flights. There are no changes to partner awards or upgrade awards. And since most American awards were already dynamically-priced web specials, in practice little changes at all.

Here are the full details.

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The Pandemic Is Over, Since Airlines No Longer Seem To Clean Their Planes

by Gary Leff

Apr 05 2023

If any pandemic precautions were to last it was my hope that actually keeping planes clean would be at the top of the list. At least clear out seat back pockets of trash from the passenger on the flight before you! But with the return to normal has come cleaning cost cuts, too, and prioritizing turning planes quickly during connections rather than cleaning between flights (and, oddly, not doing a proper cleaning job overnight either).

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