Airlines tips

Wi-Fi access isn’t free on Alaska Airlines flights. But at least for the next year, the airline’s passengers can use inflight Wi-Fi to send and receive unlimited texts for free.

Southwest manages to succeed where most companies, and airlines in particular, fail, selling a mediocre product, at a price that is rarely the lowest, racking up an industry-leading record of profitability, all the while maintaining a firm hold on the hearts and minds of its customers. Very few companies make so many people so happy so consistently.

It would be an understatement to say that travel to Cuba hasn’t met the airlines’ expectations.

Yep, that’s “billion” with a ‘b’.

On Friday evening—traditional timing for bad-news announcements that companies hope will go unnoticed by the public and unreported by the media—American published the new mileage-earning rates, effective from August 1, for travel on AAdvantage partner airlines.

I recently dubbed Alaska Airlines’ loyalty program, Mileage Plan, the “Best Mileage Program for Average Travelers.” It’s a hard-won honor, awarded for two principal reasons. First, Alaska has chosen to retain Mileage Plan’s distance-based earning scheme, even as most other airlines have adopted less generous spend-based earning. And second, Alaska has cobbled together a roster of earning and redemption partners that rivals those of the world’s largest airlines.

The Washington Post reports that U.S. carriers will ask president-elect Donald Trump to protect them from unfair competition with heavily subsidized Persian Gulf carriers. The three big U.S. airlines—Delta, United, and American—”have unsuccessfully lobbied the Obama administration to take up their cause against a trio of Gulf airlines who have grown exponentially, making inroads in the global market,” according to the Post.

How easy is it for disgruntled airline customers to file a complaint with the DOT? Not easy enough, according to Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Los Angeles). And she places the blame for that difficulty squarely on the shoulders of the airlines.

Ancillary revenue is the amount of money an airline takes in after charging for its base airfares—also known as airline fees. It might not come as a surprise that the amount airlines get by nickel-and-diming you has been growing steadily over the past decade—but some charge (a lot) more in airline fees than others. How much? Billions.

Score two for the airlines, nil for consumers.

The Transportation Security Administration today announced the addition of five new airlines to its TSA PreCheck trusted-traveler program. They are Air France, Brussels Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and World Atlantic.

Who will be the next president of the United States, if the airlines had their way?

Last week, Alaska Airlines made two significant announcements. First, the airline will be making changes to its upgrade policies and procedures. And second, it will be rolling out a premium economy product worthy of the “premium” designation.

Travelers who grumble that the airlines have gone too far in shrinking the width and legroom of coach-class seats won’t be getting any relief from Congress any time soon.

The world’s best this, the world’s best that. Everyone has an opinion. But those opinions only accrue real value when they’re aggregated with those of other people, and preferably other people with first-hand experience of the matter being judged.

American’s AAdvantage program isn’t the only loyalty scheme converting to spend-based points accrual later this year. Starbucks, the world’s largest purveyor of coffee-based beverages, has announced plans to make a similar change to its Rewards program, effective some time in April.

There’s no shortage of new airlines servicing North America right now: Norwegian, WOW, Primera, XL Airways, Level, Flair, and Joon have recently sprung up or expanded. But none of these new carriers is based in the U.S.

United’s forcible ejection of a paying passenger from flight UA3411 earlier this month was a perfect storm of bad decisions, both leading up to the incident and in its subsequent handling by company chief Oscar Munoz. The airline’s image, less than sterling to begin with, was deeply tarnished.

If you’re among the privileged few whose pocketbook or corporate travel policy allows you to fly business class, you’re in for an upgrade.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Big Three legacy airlines have changed their pricing policy for multi-city trips. And yes, you guessed it: The new policy makes such trips more expensive. In some cases, much more expensive.

When legendary investor Warren Buffett began investing in airline stocks last year, it was big news in the investing community. Theretofore Buffett had been a staunch critic of the industry’s underlying economics, and regularly unleashed scathing takedowns of airline investments. Like this, from 2002: