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News and notes from around the interweb:
- United is ordering Embraer E-175 regional jets which is a larger more comfortable plane the what it will replace. And for reasons of the airline’s pilot contract they’ll have 70 seats, not 76 which some carriers put on the aircraft. The pilots’ union wants mainline pilots to fly the plane and for it to be less comfortable for passengers, if they fly it United can put 76… or even 80 seats onboard. United pilots are not our friends (or the airline’s, really.)
- Simple things airlines can do to make long haul economy travel feel special
- I’m giving away (3) sets of 100,000 Radisson Rewards points with 3 prizes instead of one chances of winning are better than usual.
- 7500 bonus Wyndham points per stay up to 2 stays when you book by August 31, for stays through September 1, when you pay with Masterpass. (HT: Nick Reyes)
- Flight attendants unions at United and American come out against the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Unions weren’t enthralled by AnTthony Kennedy (who voted with the majority in Janus, which doesn’t directly effect flight attendants) either.
- Cathay Pacific is running a flight to Osaka and making seats available only on miles. They aren’t the first airline to do this, usually a place like Hawaii. With the right accounting assumptions and with spare aircraft capacity it can even be profitable in the short term, aside from the benefits that’ll accrue from securing customer loyalty.
- How cool is this?? Sadly probably won’t ever happen to me. (HT: Paul H.) Hawk by the way is also an ex-pitchman for American Express, now with Chase.
Flight attendant checking overhead bins, sees four skateboards
Him, jokingly: "is Tony Hawk on this flight or something?"
Looks down, sees me
Him: "I guess he is"— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) July 13, 2018
Sounds like Mainline pilots are our friends – if they didn’t negotiate the scope clauses in effect today, UA would be outfitting these with 76-80 seats and still flying them at a regional carrier.
E175s are not as nice as the new A220s. I hate CRJs and ERJs.