News & Events

Buy American Miles for 1.72 Cents Each (Plus Get a Set of Steak Knives Just Pay Shipping & Handling)

June 14, 2017

For Black Friday American offered to sell miles for as low as 1.77 cents, improving on the bonus they were already offering. Then since December is the New Black Friday they ran it again for December and through January 3. Since American now runs AAdvantage more or less like US Airways Dividend Miles, regular price […]

Star Trek Star LeVar Burton Unloads on American Airlines. But What Don’t His Twitter Fans Know?

June 14, 2017

American Airlines has been flying more widebody aircraft domestically. It’s not a huge change, but they’ve scheduled a Boeing 787-8 on Chicago – Los Angeles along with 7 to 8 narrowbody aircraft a day. Sunday American substituted a Boeing 777-300ER on the route, which in my opinion is an upgrade. But it led to problems […]

Virgin Atlantic Pulls a Paul Simon: Cancel BA Tickets With 50 Ways to Leave British Airways

June 14, 2017

I once had a flight attendant make what’s apparently a semi-famous safety announcement, along the lines of “there may be 50 ways to leave your lover but there’s only 4 ways to leave this aircraft.” Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover has a strong history then with aviation, or at least travel (“Hop […]

American Airlines Backs Off 29 Inch Pitch Economy, But It’s Not All Good News

June 14, 2017

At the end of April I broke that American was looking to add a bunch of seats to its new Boeing 737s. A few days later it was revealed that the plan involved reducing seat pitch (the distance from seat back to seat back) in 3 rows of economy from 31 inches to 29 inches, […]

Alitalia Was Days Away From Being Kicked Out of New York JFK and Having U.S. Phones Turned Off

June 14, 2017

Alitalia has been a perennial basket case. Their costs are high and their operations inefficient. And their ability to expand across the Atlantic in an advantageous way is, they say, hamstrung by a revenue-sharing joint venture agreement with Air France and Delta that’s a legacy from when Air France was a major investor in the […]

United’s Plan to Squeeze More Money From Passengers While Making Them Less Comfortable

June 14, 2017

Andrew Levy, United Airlines Executive Vice President & CFO, spoke today at the Citi 2017 Industrials Conference. D0 Comes to United Airlines, Customers Experience Should Suffer The presentation opened with United’s operational performance. They want to run on-time because re-accommodating passengers after cancellations and misconnections is expensive. However they’ve formally changed the metric they look […]

Horrible: Woman Died in Lavatory on Flight Today, Half Naked Body Dragged Down Aisle

June 14, 2017

A woman onboard American Airlines flight AA329 from Dallas to Minneapolis this morning died in the lavatory. A passenger seated near her said she went to the bathroom “about halfway” into the scheduled 2 hour 23 minute flight. During landing preparations, flight attendants discovered that there was someone still in the lavatory. When there was […]

Here’s What United’s Oscar Munoz Should Have Done After Passenger Dragged Off Plane

April 13, 2017

With the whole world melting down over a United passenger being dragged off a plane, United’s public relations response has been abysmal. They sought to distance themselves pointing out that it’s a United Express flight (operated by Republic Airlines) They apologized that customers has to be re-accommodated rather than that a customer was dragged and […]

Cathay Pacific Will Introduce a New First Class

April 13, 2017

Many airlines are eliminating first class products, with the advent of amazing business class seats — even true suites like Delta and Qatar are bringing to market. Cathay Pacific even introduced their Airbus A350s with business class as the top cabin. So it’s worthwhile news that Cathay Pacific will introduced a new first class for […]

Chicago Airport Cops Want Guns and Wells Fargo Finished Investigating Fake Accounts

April 13, 2017

News and notes from around the interweb: The cops who pulled a doctor off a United plane Sunday night and bloodied him don’t currently carry guns, but very badly want to. Delta SkyMiles is pairing with Mags4Miles to offer a magazine redemption sale, there are several titles on sale for just 100 miles and $2. […]