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In my estimation, there is exactly one reason to spend additional time at Newark Liberty Airport (EWR). Hint, it’s not to spend time in the Terminal A waiting area. Virgin Atlantic, which launched its very first route between London and Newark, operates a compact but mighty version if its famed Clubhouse at EWR. While the…
Stockholm Syndrome is a condition observed among hostages who develop an affinity and loyalty to their captors, even when held at gunpoint. I started studying the symptoms in light of a few recently heartbreaking perusals through Delta Skymiles availability calendars. Delta Skymiles isn’t exactly a wasteland, but it’s getting there. Like any frequent flier program, there…
In many cases, costly change fees make it impractical to try to renegotiate points and miles award prices. There are some cases, however when it is possible to earn back miles if prices fall after you book. Take Southwest Airlines, for instance. I recently recovered over 2,000 valuable Rapid Rewards miles by looking out for…
Over 20 years ago, Virgin Atlantic introduced something found nowhere else in the sky, a Premium Economy cabin, somewhere between the increasingly rich perks of business class (Upperclass, in Virgin lingo) and steerage. In hindsight, the concept seems obvious. If passengers pay extra for wider recliners on domestic flights, wouldn’t they be more inclined to…
There are three cabins on the upper deck of Air France’s Airbus A380. Two fall within the mediocre middle of transatlantic offerings, while one is exceptional. The airline has far better business class and premium economy seating on smaller aircraft, particularly the newer 777-300ER, but would be hard pressed to find a better economy class…
JetBlue, long the darling of airline customer service rankings, dropped from fourth to dead last in the Wall Street Journal’s annual airline performance ranking for 2017. Delta Air Lines moved from second in the 2016 rankings to overtake Alaska Airlines in take the top spot in 2017. The poor ranking is influenced by the New…
I had my first experience flying the world’s newest short-haul passenger jet this past weekend. My 50-minute connecting Swiss Global Airlines flight from Zürich Kloten (ZRH) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on a Bombardier CS100 turned out to be a great experience. There has been quite a lot of press around the CSeries program…
For all the attention poured on new business class cabins in 2017, airlines did not bestow so much favor on international first class cabins. Though heavyweight luxury carrier Emirates and Singapore launched much improved first class suites onboard their long-haul jets, enthusiasm for the private, front end of the plane waned among just about everyone…
Earlier this week I wrote about the worst behaved airline passengers of the past year. I would be remiss not to recap the plight of passengers abused at the hands of their airlines of choice in 2017. On the whole it was a good year for airline service. Customer satisfaction scores for the industry as…
The year came and went with no fatal commercial passenger jet crashes, an exceptional performance in an exceptionally safe industry. That didn’t mean passengers weren’t left holding their breath at times. Commercial aviation remains the safest mode of transportation worldwide — by far. But any incidents involving emergency landings and commercial airplanes raise eyebrows. Air…
