Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is about to begin a major realignment that will purportedly cost the airport and airlines upwards of $100 million during the next two-years. It will basically uproot and relocate every carrier’s current terminal lobby locations and gate areas. The dynamic nature of the airline industry, with new entrants, consolidations and defunct carriers,…
Southwest
Category Archives for Southwest.
The 2011 Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars have arrived!
It’s officially here! Tonight begins the 2011 Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars and I’ll be in attendance for the entire weekend. The event has sold-out and it promises to bring an uncompromised amount of education to all areas we mile and point fanatics care about. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and am certain I’ll pick…
Delta Air Lines is tops with travel managers, consumer airline reviews often differ
Most airline reviews posted in the mainstream media are traveler-based specifically focusing on the opinions of the end-user. Earlier this month, Business Travel News published the results from its 14th annual Airline Survey of 716 corporate travel managers and buyers, of which 406 represent or manage the accounts of companies who spend in excess of…
United aircraft & headquarters, free tickets for delays, all-inclusive pricing, Qantas woes & Wi-Fi, Virgin & Delta and GDS news
In other airline, hotel & travel industry news this week… Analysts expect United Airlines to place a major aircraft order early next year for as many as 200 narrowbody aircraft, possibly splitting it up between Airbus and Boeing. In a much better financial position for such a large order than American, I would anticipate these…
Scoot Airlines, cabin scents, iPads & apps, aircraft orders, route changes, ancillary fees and U-Haul
In other airline, hotel & travel industry news last week… Earlier this year Singapore Airlines announced they would be getting into the low cost carrier market using a combination of narrowbody and widebody aircraft, including refitting some of their existing Boeing 777 aircraft. Exact details have yet to be released, but it’s being reported Singapore’s…
Hurricane Irene airline travel waiver summary
I compiled the following chart showing each airline’s travel waiver information due to the impact Hurricane Irene will cause on the East coast of the United States this weekend. Please keep in mind this is a dynamic situation and the airlines will likely update their waivers as conditions change. I will do my best to…
US Airways sues pilots, mechanic steals; new airline routes; GDS extensions and profits galore
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… Late last Friday US Airways filed a lawsuit against… its own pilots. Upset with what they’re calling an “illegal slowdown” by some East (read: US Airways) pilots, the carrier claims their West (read: America West) pilots are far more efficient in minimizing delays that impact…
Testing airline response times and accuracy to question submitted online
A couple of weeks ago I decided to pose the same question to a number of airlines to see how quickly & accurately they would respond with an answer. While many airlines don’t publish an email for general questions, they do have online forms available to reach customer service or other departments with questions. I…
American, Qantas, Southwest make cuts, hotel fierceness and promos, Chicago’s on top, and jet passes plus Visa cards
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… A survey of the 50 most popular U.S. destinations conducted by the Global Business Travel Association found Chicago to be the city charging the highest total taxes for travelers. Not to worry, New York was number two so don’t get your hopes up for an…
The evolution of elite level qualification in airline frequent flyer programs
Qualifying for elite status with an airline requires meeting a certain threshold the carrier has published, whether it be point, mile or segment based. Those thresholds have been periodically raised, lowered and adjusted even to the point of birthing new tiers. Delta’s fairly recent addition of the Diamond level at 125,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles is…