You Can Still Book Delta 65,000 Mile Transatlantic Business Class, Despite Devaluation

by Gary Leff

At the beginning of February Delta devalued SkyMiles partner award pricing for the second time during the pandemic, and in a big way. Since the start of Covid-19 one way business class between the US and Europe on Air France and KLM went from 75,000 to 95,000 miles and now starts at 120,000 SkyMiles – for a 60% increase in less than a year at a time when flights are empty and prices low. Because they can.

Delta says they have no award charts any longer, but that isn’t true. They just hide their award charts. Mexico is a separate region from the United States, and while they’ve massively increased their award chart pricing for partner travel to and from the U.S., they haven’t (yet) done so for travel to and from Mexico.

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American Airlines Scoffed At Biofuels, Now Hopes For Rich Government Subsidies

by Gary Leff

sulfur dioxide emissions
Feb 28 2021

A year and a half ago American Airlines CEO Doug Parker was scoffing at United’s investments in biofuels being good for the environment. There was real evidence for his position, that current biofuel technology is simply too resource-intensive to be useful.

Now, though, American has done a 180 – with a new President whose environmental priorities open up the possibility for new subsidies.

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Lufthansa Setting Up Duty Free Vaccination Center, $1200 For Flights And Shots

by Gary Leff

Feb 28 2021

Lufthansa will set up a Covid-19 vaccination site inside Moscow Domodedovo airport so that people can fly in, get the Sputnik V vaccine without clearing immigration or customs, and then fly back.

Ultimately we need more jabs in arms, the quicker the better, through whatever means necessary. Many governments have been more focused on who gets shots out of a limited supply than making sure people get shots, and increasing supply. That prolongs the pandemic and costs lives.

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SCOOP: Delta Air Lines Is Making Large Bonus Payments To Management Employees

by Gary Leff

Feb 28 2021

Delta Air Lines is paying out bonuses to management employees to compensate them for pay cuts mandated in 2020 as part of the airline’s pandemic belt-tightening, which in some cases can exceed $250,000 per person.

These bonuses are being paid out while Delta is receiving payroll funds from the federal government, and aren’t being offered to the airline’s frontline employees who earned less in 2020 than in 2019,.

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United Airlines Will Pay $49 Million To Resolve Criminal Fraud Charges

by Gary Leff

united
Feb 27 2021

United Airlines will pay a $49 million fine to the federal government to resolve criminal fraud charges for falsifying records that allowed it to collect payments for transporting U.S. mail on time, when in fact it failed to do so.

United “falsified parcel delivery information…[b]etween 2012 and 2015..by submitting false delivery scan data to make it appear that United and partner airlines with which it worked were complying with the [on time mail delivery] requirements, when in fact they were not.”

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Someone Is Suing United Airlines For Helping Him Not Miss A Flight (Really)

by Gary Leff

united plane
Feb 27 2021

News and notes from around the interweb: After 3 years Mexico is still trying to sell its Presidential jet. Even before the pandemic it was tough to sell a VIP-configured plane because of the expense of converting it to passenger use. And Mexico’s President flies coach as his schtick. ⚡️#LoÚltimo El Presidente @lopezobrador_ abordó al vuelo Delta Airlines que lo llevará a Washington, DC, con escala en Atlanta, por la pista. 📹 Isabella González pic.twitter.com/aGZIMpwFyk — REFORMA (@Reforma) July 7, 2020 Class action lawsuit against United Airlines for sending text messages to help people make their flights it’s one of those things that makes you really sympathetic to tort reform. Capital One Starting to Raise Credit Limits in Hunt for Growth Earn miles referring people to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, who then fly the airline…

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The United Airlines ‘Halfway To Hawaii’ Game Is Back, With A New Prize

by Gary Leff

Feb 27 2021

Up through 2014 most United Airlines flights to Hawaii featured the “Halfway to Hawaii game” where you could win a bottle of champagne. Passengers would be invited to guess the exact time they’d be halfway across the ocean to Hawaii. Some would just take a close enough guess by listening to the pilot’s announced flight time, cutting it in half, and adding that to the departure time. Others took it as a more complex math problem.

The game is back – and starting March 3 there’s a new prize.

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This Pizza Place Delivers By Plane, With Free Shipping

by Gary Leff

Feb 27 2021

Papa Murphy’s in Anchorage, Alaska doesn’t deliver within 30 minutes, but that’s because they deliver by plane. If you live in remote Alaska, as far out as Prudhoe Bay 855 miles away, and you want pizza what else can you do?

The idea started when customers would call asking them to bring pizzas to the airport, and customers would arrange the air cargo themselves. While shipping eats into margins – they offer free shipping! – the pizza shop generally fulfill big orders (people don’t just order one pizza at a time).

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