Apr 13 2016

Back in the fall I spoke with AAdvantage President Suzanne Rubin and suggested that with their higher award pricing (since March 22), they could loosen their routing rules somewhat. She indicated they were looking at that.

And it appears they’ve started to because they now allow flying Cathay Pacific or American Airlines to Hong Kong, and travel beyond to India and the surrounding region on Cathay Pacific, as a single award — instead of requiring you to fly via the Atlantic.

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Apr 07 2016

After American’s pilots staged a work slowdown during the carrier’s bankruptcy, it was clear that CEO Tom Horton was going to have to go. United’s pilots made it impossible for CEO Jim Goodwin to stay on 15 years ago.

Here’s the thing. It’s often not the wages that’ll kill a company. It’s the work rules.

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Apr 06 2016

There’s no magic bullet day of week to book, but there are general rules for how far in advance to book. Know what tickets usually cost for your route. Learn airfare routing rules and how to search for discount inventory, and then piece together actual flights that have the lowest inventory buckets available. Buy one seat at a time even if you’re traveling as a pair.

Here’s what you need to know.

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Apr 03 2016

Mid-last week Alaska Airlines made no-notice changes to their Emirates award charts for business and first class travel, raising prices by as much as 100%. Overnight the price of business class and first class awards went up — a lot. A first class roundtrip between the US and Africa on Emirates went from 200,000 to 400,000 miles.

Alaska offered an explanation. It turns out that Alaska Airlines has changed their mind about why they did it, and is offering a new and different explanation.

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Apr 03 2016

An Air China co-pilot going by ‘Andy’ attracted a social media following of 72,000 on Weibo under the username 90000xiaobao posting videos of himself performing his duties. His posts went viral and he’s been suspended.

One criticism of the pilot? Use of prohibited electronic devices inflight.

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Apr 03 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Apr 02 2016

Turkish Airlines is offering amazing award availability between several US cities and Istanbul. I’d act quickly because 8 or more award seats in business class per flight simply will not last.

Turkish flights are feast or famine for award space. They opened business awards every day when they launched their San Francisco route. Historically Chicago – Istanbul has been the easiest flight on which to secure space. I’ve always had a tough time with Washington Dulles – Istanbul.

In the US they serve Boston, Chicago, New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, and Atlanta.

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Apr 01 2016

Emirates, Etihad, ANA, Asiana, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Swiss — fantastic airlines which offer fantastic first class products. We can (and do!) get into debates all day about which airlines are the best, at least if you’re an ‘avgeek’ like me, and even have intense disagreements over which one belongs in the number 5 spot versus number 6.

But the very best first class products all have something in common. They’re offered onboard the superjumbo Airbus A380s which simply have more space to offer more privacy and more amenities. So the A380 first class product has things in each case that the ‘normal’ first class product does not.

Three airlines, on their flagship A380s, offer a first class that’s beyond all others. And I think any fair-minded observer will rank these as the three best first class offerings in the world, the A380 first class onboard Etihad, Emirates, and Singapore.

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Mar 31 2016

Overnight last night Alaska Airlines made no-notice changes to their Emirates award charts for business and first class travel, raising prices by as much as 100%.

Alaska has now offered an explanation.

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Mar 31 2016

I love Alaska Airlines and the Mileage Plan program, but I love it a lot less this morning. While they don’t have plans to go revenue-based and most of their awards remain reasonable, they have gutted their award chart for travel on their partner Emirates and they have done it without notice.

Emirates has been my favorite Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan redemption. They fly to a number of US cities and have a fantastic first class product especially onboard their Airbus A380 which has showers.

These awards are mostly going to be out of reach now for Mileage Plan members.

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