American launches new lounge, new routes and new policy

With the opening of its latest Admiral’s Club at Dallas Fort/Worth, American Airlines now offers a lounge in every terminal. The newest facility is located Terminal E and will help service passengers using new gates that are slated to open in May. 

In other news American has made a flurry of announcement regarding new routes. Among the new offerings American will boost service from Boston with new flights to Austin, Indianapolis, London Heathrow, Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, N.C.  Other new additions from the East Coast include flights from LaGuardia to Bozeman and Kalispell along with three times weekly service between Philadelphia and Casablanca, Morocco. New service from Chicago O’Hare includes flights to Asheville, N.C.; Budapest, Hungary; Krakow, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic. From the West Coast, American will launch new service from Portland, Oregon to London in conjunction with partner, British Airways.   

Finally, American said it is implementing a new cashless policy for all transactions at the Miami International Airport. American already has cashless models in place at more than 50 other airports as the carrier says it creates a more efficient operation. Travelers who only have cash can convert it into debit cards at 11 kiosks provided by Ready Credit. A 5$ transaction fee applies.

Delta/Latam ramp up partnership offerings

Delta Air Lines said it will be adding new service as part of its new partnership with South America’s Latam airlines. The new domestic routes which are designed to boost connections for Latam service include flights from Miami to Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City and Tampa. Delta will launch new code share service to 51 onward Latam destinations in South American via Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 

In order to better mirror Delta’s service offerings, Latam said it will unveil new premium economy class on domestic and regional flights in March. The carrier will also move its operations at JFK from Terminal 8 to Terminal 4 on February 1 so customers can take advantage of Delta’s operational features and amenities.  

JetBlue raises bag fees; eliminates service from Oakland

JetBlue raised its checked bag fees. Passengers will now pay $35 for the first checked bag and $45 for the second checked item on tickets booked after Jan. 16, 2020. The new fees apply to passengers traveling on Blue Basic, Blue and Blue Extra tickets. 

In other news, JetBlue said it would no longer offer flights to/from Oakland airport as of April 29. Customers would instead need to use flights to San Francisco or San Jose. 

United unveils shuttle-like service and other new flights

United said it will boost its flight frequencies between Newark and Washington Reagan National Airport creating shuttle-like service between the two cities. Service will begin at 6 a.m. and run hourly until 8 p.m. There will be two gaps in service at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. United will operate the route with its new CRJ-550 regional jet which offers a true first class cabin with 10 seats along with 20 Economy Plus seats and 20 coach seats. 

United also unveiled plans for new flights between Newark and Palermo, Sicily and between San Francisco and Dublin Ireland.