Airlines tips

In his opening remarks before yesterday’s House Transportation Committee “Oversight of U.S. Airline Customer Service” hearing, committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) referred to two recent incidents: United’s forcible removal of a passenger on flight UA3411, and an American Airlines flight attendant’s tussle with a passenger over her child’s stroller.

To the argument that flying is becoming more hospitable, or is at least regaining some of its former hospitability, can now be added this: American Airlines is bringing back free meals in coach on some flights.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s best known and most successful investors, has a wildly variable relationship with the airline industry, dating back to his ill-timed investment in USAir, in 1989, which underperformed his return-on-investment expectations. He’s been a fierce critic of the industry ever since, regularly fulminating against airline investments, as he did in this 2002 interview with The Telegraph:

American Airlines announced some new in-flight options this week, which is news that should interest the budget-conscious traveler. The changes were framed as being good—but upon unpacking, it’s clear the airline has a low bar for “perks.”

United Airlines or United Apologists? If you were to judge by recent media coverage of the carrier, you might think United’s core business was issuing apologies for blunders and misdeeds made in its secondary business, commercial air transportation.

Americans use 500 million of them a day without thinking about it, and now, a growing number of countries, cities, airlines, and restaurants are banning this popular item. Plastic straws—we use them to sip our cold brew coffee, they come unasked for in our cocktails and sodas, and they are killing our environment.

Along with the base fare and all those fees your airline charges, every airline ticket includes additional charges levied by other parties. The government charges a 7.5 percent excise tax, international fares include an additional $18 tax, and a September 11 security fee of $5.60, among others. But one such fee might be about to spike.

EasyJet is about to give its customers a bit more freedom: The low-cost carrier has announced a new booking program allowing travelers to connect with other low-fare airlines. The initial project is based at London’s Gatwick Airport, and is focused on connecting EasyJet European flights with long-haul ones, like Norwegian and WestJet routes across the Atlantic, and Loganair flights to Scotland. EasyJet plans to expand the program quickly to some of its larger hubs around Europe, and to add new partnered airlines, including some based in Asia. But the program already has its limits.

American Airlines is bringing carry-on bags back to its Basic Economy fares this September. In a release this week, the airline said it’s “removing the carry-on bag restriction that is currently part of its domestic and short-haul international Basic Economy fare rules” effective September 5, for tickets purchased or flown that day.

Move over, JetBlue: United, Air Canada, and WestJet all announced an increase to their checked bag fees to directly match a fee hike JetBlue introduced just a few days ago. The first checked bag on each airline now costs $30 (Air Canada’s start at $30 and vary), and a second checked bag now costs about $40 on all four airlines.

A rising budget airline seems to have met its end. Primera Air, which recently expanded its routes to the U.S., announced that it’s suspending all operations as of October 2, 2018. Primera’s website promises “further updates,” but notes that it is no longer reachable by phone or email.

When Aer Lingus launches its new service between Dublin and Seattle on May 18, it won’t be going it alone.

Starting June 4, travelers on Alaska Airlines will face new carry-on bag size limits. The airline says its current carry-on bag size allowance is “larger than most other international and domestic airlines allow” and it wants to “make sure that your carry-on bag will be accepted aboard all the flights within your itinerary. This will help you avoid carry-on bag size conflicts and make connections with other airlines easier during your future trips.”

Hawaiian Airlines will become the latest airline to add basic economy fares, joining a now widespread trend in the airline industry.

J.D. Power is out with its annual list of the best airlines for customer satisfaction, and the ranking is once again topped by familiar liveries. Alaska Airlines is the best airline for the eleventh consecutive year—yes, eleventh—and Southwest topped the low-cost category for the second straight year.

Recently, airlines are announcing longer and longer flights—each trying to claim the title of world’s longest flight, but typically hovering just below the 18-hour mark. Today, Singapore Airlines has topped them all with the announcement of the world’s newest, non-stop flight. However, it isn’t so new …

IdeaWorks is out with its annual reward seat availability survey, which ranks airlines’ reward programs based on how easy it is to redeem frequent flyer points or miles for reward travel. As any frequent flyer knows (and as common sense dictates), this metric is essential to determining the value of an airline reward program. It’s sort of the whole point, right?

Wondering what the best airlines are according to the average flyer? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) gives a good idea in its Travelers’ Choice best airline rankings each year based on real travelers’ reviews. And the results are different than most trade studies that list the “best airlines.”

Southwest is quietly raising fares for thousands of flights to combat what it calls “cost pressures” it expects will impact its business into 2019. And while these increases are indeed minor—said to be only $2 to $5 one-way—the move by the low-cost line could signal the possibility that airfares will rise across the board.

If you’ve ever excitedly booked a cheap transatlantic flight on a budget airline only to realize you’ll pay in airport time spent waiting in a long, non-PreCheck security line, rejoice: The chances of that happening just got slimmer. Two popular foreign budget airlines now participate in TSA PreCheck: Norwegian Air and Icelandair. This means PreCheck travelers booked on either airline can use the PreCheck lane, where available, when departing from the U.S.

Checking a bag? Whether you are voluntarily or you’re forced to at the gate, hopefully you’re not flying Envoy Air or ExpressJet Airlines, as they placed last in a study of luggage handling.