AirTran Airways AirTran Airways, Hertz AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines JetBlue Airways JetBlue Airways Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Sun Country Airlines Virgin America Virgin America ZZ AirGuide 081027 Editorial eMail: edit@AirGuideOnline.com
AirTran Airways announced a partnership with e-Miles, an online advertising channel that rewards members for engaging with advertising messages. A+ Rewards members can earn A+ Rewards credits simply by reading, viewing and responding to marketing messages on e-Miles.com. ’ÄúOur partnership with e-Miles creates a new way for frequent fliers to earn travel faster. Now, A+ Rewards members can collect additional A+ credits for spending just a few minutes every day with e-Miles,’Äù said Tad Hutcheson, vice president of marketing and sales for AirTran Airways. For more information, visit www.airtran.com or www.e-miles.com.
AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc., said it has inked a new agreement with The Hertz Corporation, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. The three-year agreement calls for Hertz to be the exclusive car rental company for AirTran Airways website, call centers, inflight magazine and onboard seatbacks. In addition, the agreement allows members of AirTran Airways' frequent flier program, A+ Rewards, to earn credits for travel when renting from Hertz. Through the partnership, A+ Rewards members earn a half credit in the airline’Äôs frequent flier program for qualifying Hertz rentals of up to four days, exclusive to AirTran Airways; qualifying car rentals of five days or more earn one full credit towards a free flight. To earn credits, AirTran Airways frequent fliers must provide their A+ Rewards number when making a Hertz reservation The exclusive arrangement offers customers the option to book their rental car with Hertz when booking flights online at www.airtran.com or via 800-AIR-TRAN, along with special offers from Hertz available in seatbacks and in the inflight magazine, Go, on all AirTran Airways flights. For more information, visit www.airtran.com.
AirTran broaches possibility of Southwest code-share deal: AirTran Airways says it is open to a code-sharing deal with rival Southwest Airlines, though the two companies have never discussed such an arrangement. "If Southwest was willing to talk, we'd certainly be willing to listen," AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro said during an earnings call. A Southwest spokeswoman declined to comment, noting that the airline is "really focused now on Canada and Mexico."
JetBlue Airways is expanding its West Coast route network with the launch of daily nonstop service between L.A.’Äôs Long Beach Airport and San Francisco International Airport. Two daily flights to SFO begin Saturday while a third daily flight kicks off Nov. 2. With its added service to the Bay Area, JetBlue now offers nonstop flights to 14 destinations from its West Coast focus city at hassle-free Long Beach Airport, ideally located between Los Angeles and Orange County. Last week JetBlue began nonstop flights from Long Beach to Portland, Ore., and earlier this year added new routes to Austin, Texas; San Jose, Calif.; and Seattle. JetBlue also offers daily flights from Long Beach to Boston; Chicago (O'Hare); Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Las Vegas; New York (JFK); Oakland, Calif; Sacramento, Calif.; Salt Lake City; and Washington (Dulles). For more information, visit www.jetblue.com.
JetBlue cultivates image as "value airline". Ever since a crippling snowstorm on Feb. 14, 2007, JetBlue Airways has been struggling to reinvent itself -- just as the industry as a whole faces its biggest crisis in years. David Barger, who took over shortly after the "2/14" disaster, has recruited new management, emphasized conservative growth, introduced a la carte fees and sold a stake to Germany's Lufthansa. Attempting to shed the image of a discount carrier, Barger is promoting JetBlue as "a value airline."
Southwest Airlines Vacations clients who book a flight and hotel in Las Vegas vacation package at least five days in advance from Oct. 8 to 23 for three nights or longer can save on their travel between Oct. 10 and Jan. 6. Clients that stay two or three nights can save $50 per reservation and those that stay four nights or longer save $100 per reservation. If you use promotion code LASOCT they’Äôll receive 10 percent off the price of any show, shopping, spa, wedding or nightclub attraction offered by Southwest Airlines Vacations. A sample two-night package from Columbus, Ohio, for instance, is priced at $344 for the Golden Nugget, $384 for the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, or $389 for the Paris Las Vegas. Packages include roundtrip air via Southwest Airlines into Las Vegas, hotel accommodations and taxes, Rapid Rewards credit on air portion and 24-hour traveler assistance. For more information or reservations, visit www.southwestvacations.com/specials/detail.asp?xmlfile=FS0259. For more information on Southwest Airlines Vacations, call 800-423-5683 or visit www.southwestvacations.com.
Southwest announces first foray into Minneapolis-St. Paul. As most carriers cut back their routes, Southwest Airlines has announced it will begin service in March to Minneapolis-St. Paul, mounting a challenge to Northwest Airlines in its primary hub. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Wednesday the airline initially will offer service only to Chicago Midway, an unusually conservative kickoff for a new city. "Chicago operates somewhat like a hub for us," Kelly said. "It will allow a tremendous number of through and connecting opportunities to the Southwest system."
Sun Country Airlines moved to become financially independent from parent company Petters Group Wordwide, which has become ensnared in a US federal criminal investigation that led to this week's abrupt resignation of Chairman and CEO Tom Petters.
Virgin America helped bring together thousands of attendees for the annual California Governor and First Lady’Äôs Conference on Women in Long Beach, Calif. As the official domestic airline sponsor of the conference, Virgin America is flying many of the world-renowned speakers, hosting a presence on the event floor, and is bringing teammates to the event -- including the start-up carrier’Äôs female leadership, pilots and crew. This year’Äôs conference is expected to bring together 14,000 women, and presenters will include Condoleezza Rice, Bono, Warren Buffett, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Matthews, Rachael Ray, Madeleine Albright and more. The airline’Äôs in-flight team members will be staffing a demonstration on the event floor of the carrier’Äôs unique features, including Virgin America’Äôs award-winning Red In-flight Entertainment system. For more information, visit www.californiawomen.org or www.virginamerica.com
Virgin America is introducing a Main Cabin Select fare for flights starting Nov. 3. The service class will offer passengers 38-in. seat pitch, "a more streamlined boarding process" and complimentary food and cocktails inflight. "In short, this is for the traveler who wants an upscale experience for far less than what they would pay for business class on someone else," President and CEO David Cush said. VA also yesterday began offering "fully refundable fares" up to the time of departure for one-way economy tickets, giving passengers "the option to change their itinerary or even receive a full refund should their plans change," Cush said.
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