Wednesday, October 31, 2012

United Airlines Bulletin Update-Immediate Release

UPDATE 4: Exception Policy for Superstorm Sandy - October 28 - November 3 Superstorm Sandy continues to impact the eastern U.S. with severe weather. Limited service to New York/Newark (EWR) and New York/Kennedy (JFK) resumed Wednesday, October 31. As previously communicated, operations resumed at Cleveland (CLE) and Washington/Dulles (IAD) on Tuesday, October 30. As conditions permit and as aircraft and crews are positioned into the region, United will increase operations at EWR, JFK, IAD and all other airports in the affected area of the U.S. Northeast. New York-LaGuardia (LGA) is currently closed. United will begin limited inbound service at LaGuardia as soon as possible once the airport reopens. Where possible, United is utilizing larger aircraft and/or adding extra flights to provide greater capacity in and out of affected airports. The exception policy for New York City airports (EWR, JFK, LGA) has been extended to include travel through November 3. Customers with travel to, from, or through these three airports between October 28 and November 3 may reschedule or voluntarily refund their travel without penalty within the parameters provided below. Additionally, customers with an immediate travel need may reschedule their itinerary utilizing one of the alternate cities below without penalty (this is currently only available through agency GDS transactions and United Reservations). Customers should visit united.com to check the status of their flight prior to departing for the airport. MileagePlus® members are encouraged to enroll in flight status notification updates through the communication preferences on their MileagePlus profile. www.premieretravel.com

Delta Refinery Operational, N.Y. Delta Flights Not

At least one of Delta's operations weathered Sandy hurricane better than the flight operations at JFK and LaGuardia. Delta said its Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania continued without any interruption. The refinery provides 185,000 barrel-a-day in fuel and through a swap program, the purchase of this refinery will shield Delta from the fuel cost fluctuations. www.premieretravel.com

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Airlines and Airports Scramble to Return to Normal

Airlines are scrambling to re-position aircraft and crews and airports are beginning efforts to restore services for travel operations Wednesday. Airports not affected by the super storm Sandy still felt the reverberating impact. Chicago and Atlanta, among others, experienced their own delays and cancellations as flights going into and coming from impacted airports took their toll. Passengers scheduled to depart Wednesday should double-check with the airlines or at www.premieretravel.com (flight status) to get the latest information on their flights. We estimate that it will take several days for schedules to get back to normal and many flights may still be cancelled or delayed. While many airlines have issued "waivers", their policies will vary in flexibility and some for example require affected travel to be completed by November 4. With near zero slack in capacity and equipment, many will find that flight alternatives and seats simply do not exist. www.premieretravel.com

Friday, October 26, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Eyes Mid-Atlantic Region

From the National Weather Service: Hurricane Sandy will move northward through the Bahamas on Friday, bringing tropical storm conditions to the east coast of Florida. Tropical storm conditions are possible in the Carolinas Saturday and Saturday night. Sandy is expected to turn toward the northeast on Saturday, followed by a turn to the northwest early next week, with direct impacts expected for the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast U.S. Due to the unpredictable nature of this storm, passengers are advised to check the status of their flights regularly. Airlines will be issuing travel waivers starting Friday afternoon for airports on the eastern seaboard and beyond. Our after-hours emergency service will be available, however, please bear in mind that this is for emergency use only and that wait times may be very long and options, if any, will be very limited. www.premieretravel.com

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

New Improved Body Scanners on Way

The TSA is in the process of replacing the much hated body scanners currently in use at most major airport with less intrusive and "user friendly" machines that will not project the body images and will produce faster processing and more accurate scanning.www.premieretravel.com

Friday, October 19, 2012

Some Airlines' Deep Hostility to Travel Companies

Frontier Airlines have joined the ranks of Southwest, Spirit and others in implementing policies that are particularly hostile to online travel agencies and third party providers. Many airlines have implemented amenities only valid if travelers book direct on the airlines' websites and will charge higher fees, inhibit seat assignments if third parties are used to book. Some, such as Virgin America and Jet Blue will give discounts or extra miles for enticing travelers to book direct. Why this hostility? These airlines want to control travel from A to Z. They see the agent as the enemy because the agent actually works for the benefit of the traveler. Agents will advocate for their travelers and charge a small fee to provide personalized services that these airlines are incapable of doing. They penalize agents for holding reservations that are ultimately not ticketed by charging up to $300 fee for a booking. Agents do not make any commissions off of these airlines and the cost of distributing these seats through agents are very minimal. What the agents do offer is the impartial display of all airlines and flights and shop comparison tools for best pricing, something these particular airlines absolutely resent. www.premieretravel.com

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Phishing Scams Target Frequent Flyers

Scammers are attempting to send fraudulent emails to frequent flyers of many airlines claiming to be from the airlines and stating that the traveler had purchased a ticket and his/her credit card had been charged. The email contains a purported "invoice/receipt" attachment that has a dangerous virus. Airlines do not send this type of correspondence and recipients are advised to delete the email and never open the attachments. www.premieretravel.com

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Potential Shakeup Looms for Airline Alliances

The Star Alliance, Sky Team and One World are dealing with the ripples of side alliances taking shape this week between members within these alliances that will bring into question what members expect these partnerships to achieve and the new conflicts that they bring in. At the center of it all are 3 Middle East carriers, wielding lots of cash, new facilities and equipment that are jockying to outdo each other by finding the right partners to leverage their ability to sell more seats. Qatar Airways struck a deal with One World (led by British Airways and American Airlines). This may conflict with efforts by American to also link up with Emirates, a rival of Qatar Airways. Etihad of the UAE, a rival of both carriers is now in alliance with the Air France/KLM Group a key partner of the Sky Team, and noticeably missing is the name of Delta, the American partner of the Sky Team. Meanwhile Emirates has done a codeshare deal with Qantas. Confused? The dust is yet to settle and the shakeup might just be the beginning of the redefinition of what these alliances, joint ventures and partnerships will become going forward. The biggest losers are likely to be the junior partners within these alliances that will come to find out there is no room for them at the big dance. www.premieretravel.com

Friday, October 5, 2012

Update: American Now Blames Passengers For Loose Seats

Just as we thought we heard it all, American Airlines spokeperson pointed the finger at the sloppy passengers whose spilled sodas, coffee and beer caused seats to come undone. A Public Relations Firm representing the carrier in an amended statement to CNN went on further to say: ""people spilling sodas, popcorn, coffee or whatever"... The airline has announced that it is taking "additional preventative steps". So based on the statement, it appears passengers on American must be particularly sloppy as no other carrier seems to encounter that type of problem which was originally attributed to labor tensions. What we do know is that those 757's are pretty old and the average age of American Airlines aircraft is 15 years plus.

Monday, October 1, 2012

New MileagePlus Conversion Made Easy

Here's an easy tip for MileagePlus members to convert from the old numeric to the new alpha-numeric number without calling United: Simply go to the address below, enter your old number, and click on "submit query" https://secure.unitedmileageplus.com/MergerSites/getUA8.jsp

Woes Continue for American Airlines

"Fasten Your Seatbelts" takes on a whole new meaning. The FAA is investigating this morning's incident on American flight 6885 in which a whole row of seats came loose and started moving around the cabin. There were passengers in those seats who had to be moved and the plane had to make an emergency landing at JFK. While American Airlines operates the oldest fleet of aircraft, such maintenance issues have come to fore coincidentally as the airline has been experiencing very tense labor problems while attempting to work its way out of bankruptcy.www.premieretravel.com