The Day After: Alaska Joins the Change Fee Party
1 A day after American and Delta followed United’s move to eliminate change fees, it’s Alaska’s turn to drop change fees on most fares. Alaska, the fifth-largest airline in the United States, gives a clean sweep for the top-5, having waived change fees on (at least) most domestic travel going forward. Southwest remains unimpressed, as it has never had change fees on any flight, domestic, international, or to the moon.
Alaska is matching American’s more generous policy in eliminating change fees on both domestic and international tickets. Alaska serves locations in Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico, along with the United States and will remove change fees except on saver fares, which are Alaska’s version of Basic Economy. This used to be a benefit solely offered to the airline’s top-tier elite members. Now everyone gets it.
Alaska joins Delta and United in announcing only the elimination of change fees, and not sweeping additions on basic economy as American did. Alaska also is keeping its same-day standby fee in-place for now, as did Delta, while American and United both eliminated the fee.
Aer Lingus Considers UK as Transatlantic Alternative
2 Aer Lingus is considering moving its Shannon-based transatlantic operation east from Ireland to the UK. The airline is struggling to deal with EU travel restrictions due to the virus, and a move to the UK would reduce some obstacles for the airline.
Alongside Edinburgh and Manchester, four other UK airports are interested in the potential service but have not yet been named. They were hoping to be included in yesterday’s MLB trade deadline as an airport to be named later, but a deal never came together.
The flights would still be operated by Aer Lingus on its own aircraft. If the airline moved its A321 transatlantic operations to the UK, it would still leave open the possibility of basing other aircraft in Ireland to potentially restore U.S. and London/Heathrow flights if conditions warranted it next year & beyond.
One Aer Lingus represenative, who declined to be named, said that the move of flights to the U.S. away from Ireland had nothing to do with Lucky Charms recently coming out with marshmallow-only pouches, and that the timing was merely a coincidence.
Spirit Adds Orange County
3 Try imagining a meeting today at Spirit’s HQ in Miami — someone, some brave soul, probably said something like “hey, did you see the big airlines are eliminating change fees — any chance we want to consider doing the same?” Assuming he or she wasn’t shot or fired for making such a ludicrous request, once the laughing subsided, the Spirit executive team realized it had to do something.
Enter Orange County. The addition of the capacity-controlled SNA to Spirit’s route map comes as other airlines have reduced service to the airport in the midst of the pandemic. This will be Spirit’s third airport in the LA area, following LAX and Burbank.
Spirit will serve two cities to begin from Orange County, with 3x-daily service to both Las Vegas and Oakland. Those interested in booking Spirt’s newest routes can pay Spirit $12.99 for the right to access the schedules for the 3x-daily flights and can expect to see a $29 “new-destination fee” on added onto their final bill which Spirit charges for the first 60 days after it launches a new destination.
Air Canada & Toronto/Pearson to Begin COVID Testing Trial
4 As Canada maintains a strict border policy in the midst of the pandemic only allowing Canadian citizens and permanent residents to enter the country, Canada’s airlines, led by Air Canada are looking to get creative to return some normalcy to international air travel.
Air Canada is partnering with Toronto/Pearson, the nation’s busiest airport to start a trial program of pre-flight virus testing that to hopefully prove that the Canadian government can open the nation’s borders slowly with confirmed negative tests from travelers. Air Canada’s main domestic rival WestJet is in the planning stage of a similar trial program in Vancouver.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says officials are looking into whether it’s practical to test people for COVID-19 when they enter Canada instead of requiring them to quarantine.
The trial will start after Labor Day — or Labour Day as our Canadian friends would call it. In the meantime, Canadians returning home will still be required to quarantine for 14 days and are only allowed to drink Tim Horton’s coffee and dine on poutine while running out the clock.
Delta Improves Companion Upgrade Policy
5 If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make a sound? Along those same lines, if Delta improves its companion upgrade policy but no one has ever gotten a companion upgrade — does it really matter?
Nevertheless, Delta updated its upgrade priority for elite Medallion members traveling with non-status companions. Before the change, a non-status companion would never, ever only clear an upgrade beginning a day before departure. The companion will now never be upgraded be upgraded in the window of their Medallion traveling companion.
This will be good news for Diamond Medallion travelers with non-status companions. For Platinum and Gold — not so much, as non-status travelers will move ahead on the upgrade list, not that Platinum or Golds would ever get upgraded on Delta anyway.
Airline Potpourri
- Air France is adding service from Paris/CDG to two locations in the Caribbean — both will continue to also operate from Paris/Orly. Fort-de-France will see 3x-weekly service, with Pointe-a-Pitre (PTP) operating 4x-weekly.
- Delta is resuming service between Los Angeles and Guadalajara (GDL) in October for the first time since 2017.
- EgyptAir and Air Cairo have signed a codeshare agreement.
- Emirates received a whopping $2 billion in bailout funds from the Dubai government. The airline plans to use it to outfit each 380 with an extra minute of shower time plus an extra ounce of caviar per first class passenger.
- flydubai and Emirates have resumed their codeshare agreement that is valid on flights to 100 cities across the globe.
- Ukraine International Airlines is temporarily cutting service to nine cities as Ukraine closes its borders due to an increase in positive virus cases.
- Wings Over Lebanon, which apparently was a real airline, has suspended operations.
- Wizz Air plans to operate at about 60% capacity during its upcoming Q2.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I heard a funny joke about a boomerang earlier.
I’m sure it’ll come back to me eventually.