New US News Rewards Program Rankings Are Out, And They’re A Big ‘Ol Pile Of Goo

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

The U.S. News Travel Rewards program rankings are out and they are a big ‘ol mess, largely because the methodology they use to rank programs makes little sense – which they’ve known for years and haven’t done anything meaningful to improve.

This year is worse than ever because they say they didn’t even bother searching award availability to determine which airline programs are best, blaming the pandemic. And hotel rankings even appear to punish hotel chains offering strong coverage in smaller markets.

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American Airlines Orders 20 Supersonic Jets, Fly To Europe In 3.5 Hours Or Asia In 5 Hours

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

Last summer United Airlines placed an order with Boom Aerospace for supersonic jets. Now American Airlines has placed an order, too. American claims they’ll have the biggest fleet of supersonic jets since their order is for 5 more planes than United’s.

American made a non-refundable deposit on the first 20. It’s unclear what non-refundable means: probably non-refundable in the case Boom Aerospace winds up in bankruptcy, but non-refundable if there’s never an engine for the plane?

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Pilot – Son Of The Airline’s Chairman – Sends Distress Signal By Mistake, Gets Intercepted By F16s

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

An Airbus A321 from Madrid to Beirut operated by SkyTeam member Middle East Airlines was intercepted by Greek F-16 fighter jets after the pilot of August 10th’s flight 242, son of the airline’s Chairman and Director General, became non-responsive to air traffic control after signaling a distress code. Nothing was wrong, and the flight’s captain may have simply failed to communicate on the correct frequency.

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London Heathrow Continues Limit On Passengers, But American Airlines Says Things Are Getting Better

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

Last month London Heathrow airport placed severe restrictions on the number of passengers who could fly out of the airport, in the face of staff shortages that had left to interminable waits, missed flights, and lost luggage.

Passenger limits were set to end September 11 but have been extended through October 29. Yet American Airlines is actually lifting is ban on nonrev passengers that had been implemented due to the caps saying conditions are improving.

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Unboxing The American Airlines ConciergeKey Welcome Kit

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

Following the change to my account status, from Executive Platinum to ConciergeKey, I received a welcome email and then a phone call thanking me for my business. I was told to expect a welcome kit in about 3 weeks. In total it took 17 days.

On Friday I received an email that I had a Fedex package coming from “Specialty Print Communications” and that it would arrive by Tuesday. I googled them and saw they did work for American Airlines, so I knew this had to be my ConciergeKey package.

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6 Reasons Delta Flight Attendants Should Reject A Union

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

The Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA) is trying to organize flight attendants at Delta. They are promising more money, less work and a pony. It costs them nothing to make promises, which are almost certainly not true. In reality, Delta’s cabin crew will pay for union representation, they won’t make as much money as they will under Delta’s unique model in the industry, and their work lives will be worse.

Every Delta flight attendant should ask, are cabin crew represented by AFA-CWA actually happier and better off at the myriad of airlines where the union represents them now – like United Airlines, Spirit, Frontier, and Mesa?

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