Soon, you’ll be able to choose among four gender options when you book your airline tickets in the USA. American, Alaska, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines have confirmed that they intend to offer four options for gender when booking...
Lufthansa First Class: 2019 Vs. 2009
As I was looking though some old pictures last night, I stumbled upon a Lufthansa First Class trip I took in 2009 that was eerily similar to the one I just took. Thus, I thought a comparison post might...
The Lovely American Airlines Agent
Have you ever had a phone call with an airline that left you smiling? I just did with American Airlines. I know most calls to airlines, including American, are painless at best and excruciatingly annoying at worst. It is...
Great Dane: A New Danish Airline
Great Dane Airlines, a new Danish airline, plans to makes it debut this summer. But will the airline be dogged by intense competition and banished to the doghouse? The carrier will be based out of Aalborg, Denmark’s fourth-largest city and...
Vietnam Cleared For USA Flights
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has upgraded Vietnam’s safety rating, finally giving airlines in Vietnam the chance to serve the United States and codeshare with U.S. carriers. Vietnam has been trying to break into the U.S. market for years, but...
A Valentine’s Day Travel Gift That Keeps On Giving
If you have not come up with a Valentine’s Day gift for your loved one (or even if you have), consider the gift that keeps on giving: travel knowledge. Imagine a gift that pays for itself over and over...
United Airlines Sends Me A Valentine
I received a nifty valentine in the mail from United Airlines. First off, happy Valentine’s Day! Although the holiday has been commercialized even more so than Christmas, it originally began as a Christian feast day to remember a pair...
Korean Air Loses Monopoly On Lucrative Route
After a nearly 30-year monopoly, Korean Air will no longer be the sole Korean carrier flying between Seoul Incheon and Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. In 1991 Korea and Mongolia signed an aeronautical agreement. The agreement allowed for only one carrier...
The A380 Is Dead, Long Live The A380
Airbus announced today that it would be shutting the A380 production line in 2021. The move is sadly not a surprise. 17 A380s will still be built, including 14 to Emirates and 3 to ANA. In a written statement,...
I Doubt Air Canada Deliberately “Dupes” Passengers On Oversold Flights…
A CBC story has gone viral in which two anonymous Air Canada employees share that their airline instructs employees to “dupe” passengers in danger of being bumped from oversold flights into thinking that everything will be fine. My response:...
“Indecent Exposure Incident” Leads To Closure Of South Carolina Airport, Flight Cancellations
A half-naked woman sighted running down a runway at Florence Airport in South Carolina led to a temporary airport shutdown and two flight cancellations. The Florence County Sheriff’s Office reported “a partially clothed woman sprinted through the airport’s runway and into...
Review: SWISS A340-300 First Class Shanghai To Zurich
Here’s a classic report from 2011, but published for the first time and for good reason. I recently flew the A340 on Lufthansa in first class and am compiling a series of comparison posts from the four European airlines (Air...
Novel United Flight Attendant Books A Special Volume Of Love
When one United flight attendant found that a passenger had left a book behind thousands of miles from its home, she took it and mailed it home. Flight attendant Lin Kullick noticed the book, The Lemon Grove, left behind on...
United’s Bold New Growth In Denver
United Airlines will restructure its schedule on Thursday at Denver International Airport, adding more than 60 mainline flights each week. I’ve written about United’s domestic growth strategy and rebanking strategy before. Rebanking means clustering arrivals and departures together to...
Prepare For A Fare War To Hawaii
Southwest Airlines is expected to announce schedules for its new Hawaii service this week. Brace yourselves for a fare war. Southwest already has a dedicated page on its website for Hawaii and hints that a service announcement is imminent....
My Prediction: Lufthansa Hidden City Lawsuit Will Backfire
Hoping to dissuade passengers from engaging in the practice of hidden city ticketing, Lufthansa is suing a passenger for skipping a flight from Frankfurt to Oslo. I’m betting the lawsuit is going to backfire. With stiff competition from Norwegian...
Teen Arrested For Hijack Attempt In Alaska
A 16-year-old was arrested for briefly commandeering the controls during a commercial flight in Alaska. So much of Alaska is traversed by air travel and a number of airlines most of us are not familiar operate regional “milk” routes...
The Real Reason Air New Zealand 787 Was Denied Landing in Shanghai: Taiwan
There’s a new twist in the Air New Zealand 787 diversion story…it appears China denied the aircraft landing rights over a reference to Taiwan on the flight paperwork. In case you missed my story yesterday, an Air New Zealand...
When Afghanistan Was An Oasis Of Tranquility
Few nations have faced turmoil like Afghanistan. From a disastrous Soviet occupation to an even bloodier civil war to an imposition of a strict variant of Islamic law to a western invasion…oh, what turbulent times. But it wasn’t always...
British Airways Calls This A Lounge?
Lounge overcrowding is a problem around the world, but nowhere have I seen it as bad as in London. My recent visit to the British Airways’ Galleries South Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 is the perfect example. Here is...
