American Airlines is raising the price of its Admirals Club annual memberships July 25. Prices vary by type of membership and status in the airline's AAdvantage frequent-flier program. A new individual membership for a traveller without status in the program is increasing to US$550 from $500. A new household membership will be $925, up from $825. Elite members pay less. An AAdvantage member with Platinum status, for example, would pay $500 for an new individual membership -- up from $450. A household membership for a Platinum member runs $775, up by $100. Travellers can use miles to pay for a membership, and the mileage requirements to do so are going up too. New memberships for non-elite fliers will begin at 85,000 miles, up from 80,000. <br/>
oneworld
Malaysia Airlines has settled damages with the relatives of most victims of the MH17 crash, the lawyer representing the victims, Veeru Mewa, says. Dutch media say there are no further details because both parties have agreed to secrecy. A memorial service was held for the victims Sunday near Schiphol. Under the Montreal Convention airlines must pay damages of up to about US$145,000 to victims' families, regardless of the circumstances of a crash. Exactly how much each individual is awarded depends on the circumstances. Sunday's anniversary was also the deadline for submitting damages claims. Dutch prosecutors say they are still waiting for Russia to provide information on the downing of Flight MH17. Some families of the victims are suing Russia and its president Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights. <br/>
Airberlin flies up to 500 times a week to Palma de Majorca, an increase of up to 100 weekly flights compared to last summer. Palma is one of its major destinations to connect with 23 airports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The airline will operate 10,000 flights to Majorca from May to September. Of these, 83% are from Germany and around 17% are made up of flights from Austria and Switzerland. “Strong demand this summer has again led us to expand the number of services to the holiday island from our core markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland,” CCO Julio Rodriguez said. Terrorism and overall geopolitical volatility continue to affect European aviation, manifesting a general downward trend in the tourism sector, especially to destinations in Egypt and Turkey, as many tourists are traveling instead to Spain. <br/>