United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby blames high fuel prices for unprecedented increases in airfares. That’s a new tune for Kirby who argued for a doubling of airfares even in 2018.
Airfares increased 18% in April, the biggest increase for a month since the government began tracking this nearly 60 years ago. Fuel prices, though, aren’t the reason why.
On Tuesday Dominican low cost carrier Red Air had a landing gear collapse on arrival in Miami. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating flight L5-203 from Santo Domingo with 126 people on board “came to a stand still off the runway with a fire developing at the right hand wing, where a fuel spill occurred.” Three people were hospitalized from minor injuries during the evacuation.
One of the more common pet peeves among American Airlines business class passengers is the tendency for flight attendants to collect headphones an hour or more prior to arrival.
On an overnight flight this means that announcements about headphones are disturbing passengers who may still be trying to sleep. And it means that passengers can’t continue to use the headphones for the remainder of their flight.
Spirit’s board almost has to take JetBlue’s offer now unless Frontier comes up with more cash. The federal government then has to make a choice whether to sign off on it in order to kill the JetBlue-American Airlines Northeast Alliance. If they make that offer, JetBlue almost has to take it.
Frontier winds up with divested slots and gates in the Northeast anyway. JetBlue massively overpays. American loses its New York strategy. And the big winners wind up Delta and United, who face less competition for New York (and Boston).
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When American Airlines announced the end of the ‘Shuttle’ product in November they shared that they would turn over New York LaGuardia – Boston flying to JetBlue and introduce Shuttle-like fares to several markets.
New “Main Select” fares would be refundable, bundling priority boarding and check-in, free seat assignments for any coach seat (including extra legroom) and free same-day confirmed changes. According to a spokesperson these fares are now available on several routes:
The President of Cardless was once an intern at The Points Guy so bringing a travel card into his portfolio of products is certainly a big deal there. This isn’t LATAM’s first U.S. co-brand. They were partners with U.S. Bank. So Cardless taking on the LATAM product is another sign of strength for the startup.
The new LATAM products make earning elite status easy.
Covering how to prepare yourself for the turmoil of air travel this summer – since so many flights are cancelling, and there are few seats available for rebooking – I suggested booking a backup itinerary using miles for travel later in the day or the next day, and then cancelling the award ticket when your planned flight works out.
However I was asked, “Isn’t United charging for redeposit?” The answer is no, and it wouldn’t matter if they did.
Delta eliminated traditional mileage upgrades in 2019, and they no longer let top tier elite members upgrade paid coach tickets to business class. Upgrades with miles can now cost as much as one million miles roundtrip.
Back in September Oman Air announced its intention to join oneworld alliance and that it is working with Qatar Airways on its application as a sponsor.
Now joining is official.
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 »
