ASIA

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Delta Falsely Accuses Frequent Flyer Of Trafficking His Special Needs Daughter

Peter Espinosa flew first class from Minneapolis to Dallas on Delta with his 20 year old daughter who has genetic disorder Fragile X Syndrome. They were headed to visit his son – her brother – for Father’s Day.

A flight attendant saw a Hispanic man with a woman young enough to be his daughter and questioned her. The syndrome makes her nervous. So police met the aircraft and arrested him.

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‘Basic Business Class’ Fares Are Bad Business For Both Customers And Airlines

Jun 19 2021

Emirates started selling ‘basic business class’ fares last year. Qatar Airways came out with this, restricting access to lounges and to advance seat selection on the cheapest business class tickets. And the latest entrant into this game is Finnair, and their restrictions are absolutely brutal.

What’s really interesting here is whether airlines can make Basic Business Class work as a way to generate more revenue. While Basic Economy has caught on and had mixed results, it’s going to be a lot harder to do with Business Class and that strategy will probably cost an airline more than it’ll generate in incremental revenue. Your cable television bill helps explain why.

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The President of AAdvantage Wants To Replace Award Charts With A Real Estate Website

Jun 18 2021

The President of the American AAdvantage program says they’re intending to get rid of award charts. He offered that they’re working on a replacement like “a real estate website that shows you how many people have bought a property in a given area and for what price range, as well as a ticker for how many people are looking at a specific property right now.”

The more I think about this model, and this analogy that he offers, the worse it sounds for customers.

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American Airlines Promotes Billion Dollar Order Of Electric Aircraft That May Never Happen

Jun 10 2021

In February United Airlines made a splash ordering electric aircraft with the idea of transporting people from urban centers like Manhattan over to Newark. Now four months later American Airlines announces that it, too, is investing in urban air mobility, maybe.

The aircraft in question hasn’t had a test flight yet, but they’re touting that “certification of the aircraft [could come] as early as 2024” which means it will be farther out into the future than that.

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American Is Re-Opening Its International Business & (Most) First Class Lounges

Jun 09 2021

American Airlines is re-opening its Flagship international business class lounges and most of its Flagship First Dining this fall, starting with Miami. They’re also re-opening all of their Admirals Clubs except Honolulu this summer. And they’re going to introduce a new way for premium passengers to access Flagship.

That’s wonderful because these lounges were fantastic. United’s Polaris lounges were probably a step above American’s Flagship lounges, but Flagship lounges were open to many more people and nicer than anything American had ever done before. American’s Flagship First Dining product was nicer than anything any U.S. airline has done in recent years, period.

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American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades Extended Through July 2022

first class cabin
Jun 01 2021

I reported two weeks ago to expect announcements from American Airlines at the start of June extending systemwide upgrade expiration again and offering further incentives for earning elite status this year.

It appears that the American Airlines IT shop is out ahead of their Corporate Communications team, because systemwide upgrades have already been extended in accounts.

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Hotels In India Offering Vaccine Packages For Residents Willing To Pay Extra For A Shot

May 31 2021

Hotels are collaborating with hospitals in India offering vaccine packages and India’s government is cracking down.

By working together with hotels to offer vaccines, Indian hospitals are creating an explicit price. They’re bundling the goods, and that makes it harder to separate how much you’re paying for an included bath robe versus for a life-saving jab.

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US Government May Issue Voluntary Vaccine Passports For Travel

May 29 2021

Countries that have been opening to vaccinated Americans are accepting CDC vaccine cards as ‘proof’ of vaccination. These are pieces of cardstock you can print off the internet, and real ones are often filled out by hand. There is no central federal database of who has had a vaccine, those specifics are generally held at the state level – and the quality of recordkeeping varies dramatically.

The Secretary of Homeland Security says vaccine passports are under serious consideration as a way of helping Americans meet the requirements of entry for foreign countries.

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