People Are Bringing More Bags To The Airport Than Ever, And American Is Increasing Some Fees

by Gary Leff

May 13 2021

Leisure travel isn’t just vacation, it’s also “visiting friends and relatives” or ‘VFR’ for short. And those passengers tend to check a lot of luggage. What’s more, the mix of passengers traveling has changed. Business travelers don’t tend to check nearly as much luggage. So the same number of passengers as before on a plane comes with more luggage now than it used to.

American Airlines has adjusted some baggage fees in the Mexico, Caribbean, and Latin America market, perhaps most notably increasing third checked bag fees to $200.

Continue Reading »

The American-JetBlue Alliance Can’t Even Assign Seats. Here’s The New Procedure.

by Gary Leff

May 13 2021

A week ago I wrote about why codeshares are great for airlines, not customers, and why you should almost never book one. There are edge cases, but in general they’re a hassle – whether because you need to get rebooked due to a schedule change or even just have a seat assigned.

What prompted me to write about this is that American Airlines, despite its close alliance with JetBlue in the Northeast, is unable to assign seats on JetBlue flights. American’s workaround wasn’t working, so now there’s a new one.

Continue Reading »

U.S. Airlines May Start Weighing Passengers At The Gate

by Gary Leff

May 13 2021

U.S. airlines may need to start weighing passengers in order to comply with FAA rules. For safety reasons, carriers need to calculate an aircraft’s weight and balance, and it has to be within allowable limits for the plane. However the assumptions they’ve been using for passengers are outdated. Americans are getting fatter, and the federal government wants airlines to find out how much fatter their passengers have gotten, at least for smaller aircraft.

Continue Reading »

Book Iberia Awards To Europe At Old ‘Glitch’ Pricing

by Gary Leff

stock airline bed
May 12 2021

The good news is Boston and New York – Madrid remain 34,000 miles each way in business class. Iberia Plus is a transfer partner of both Chase and American Express, and members with Iberia Plus accounts with activity can move their British Airways points over. This can be desirable because Iberia’s transatlantic awards on their own planes are so inexpensive and fuel surcharges aren’t significant.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Just Completed A Major Milestone Of The US Airways Merger (Yes, 8 Years Later)

by Gary Leff

delta and american plane tails
May 12 2021

Did you know that eight years into the American Airlines-US Airways merger, not all work groups were on a single system, and the merger wasn’t ‘complete’?

American was one airline to passengers long before it was a single airline to employees. The airline’s systems for tracking aircraft maintenance were still separate – until last week.

Continue Reading »

Easy Star Alliance Gold Status Match

by Gary Leff

first class seats
May 12 2021

How about this for worst timing ever? Right at the start of the pandemic Star Alliance airline TAP Air Portugal launched a huge marketing campaign for its 75th anniversary, to make their frequent flyer program relevant for Americans. They offered miles for sale at less than a penny each and an elite status match program.

Members who took them up on the status match, fortunately, had that status extended. And it turns out that the status match offer is still available.

Continue Reading »