American Airlines is relaxing part of its pet policy to let owners bring their companion and a full-size carry-on bag into the cabin. Until this week, people who carried a pet into the cabin — which involves paying a $150 fee — could only have one other small item that fit under the seat. Anything bigger, like a carry-on bag with wheels, needed to be checked — for a $35 fee. Or they could put the pet in the cargo hold. Now American is letting passengers bring a pet in the cabin and also bring a regular carry-on bag or a personal item — just not both bags. The old policy struck some pet owners as unfair, since they were already paying a pet fee. Gary Leff, a travel blogger who first wrote about the change, recalled traveling years ago with a Yorkshire terrier. “It was always frustrating that the dog counted as the carry-on even though I was paying the extra (pet) fee that was sometimes more than the ticket for me,” he said Friday. Leff said he thinks American’s change will reduce the urge for travelers to falsely claim that their pet is a service animal that flies for free. An American spokeswoman confirmed that the rules change took effect Thursday. “We made the change to provide a more convenient and comfortable experience to customers whose pets fly American,” she said.<br/>
oneworld
Moose, a dog that was supposed to be on an outgoing Alaska Airlines flight Tuesday from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, has been reunited with its owner after a “misstep in the cargo loading process,” the airline said. Moose did not make it onto the Tuesday flight and when staff members tried to load him on another flight Wednesday, he was able to escape, the airline said. “The dog was scheduled to fly on our flight Tuesday night with its owner, but due to a misstep in the cargo loading process, the dog did not make the trip. It stayed with our team at the airport overnight,” according to a spokesperson from Alaska Airlines. “While waiting to load the dog on the Wednesday flight to Seattle, the dog was taken for a walk. When it was time to place him into the crate, the dog pulled away, shook loose from its collar and ran away,” Alaska Airlines went on to say. The airline began searching for Moose and flew his owner back to help look for him, the airline said. Moose, who was found Thursday morning, was able to have a hearty breakfast before leaving the airport, according to a spokesperson with Raleigh-Durham International Airport. “He is safe and sound and had a good breakfast courtesy of one of our K9 officers,” the airport spokesperson said. Alaska Airlines apologized for the mishap and said it’s happy the dog and owner have been reunited. “We’re happy that the dog is safely back with its pet parent,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said. “We sincerely apologized to the owner for what was a stressful situation.”<br/>
Royal Jordanian is grappling with the double whammy of the Israel-Gaza war that has dampened bookings in Q1 2024 and jet delivery delays by Airbus that have hampered its fleet renewal plans, its CE said. The Amman-based airline has been hit by operational difficulties and financial losses with the Israel-Gaza war continuing for nearly six months. In the first quarter of 2024, which is typically a slow period of the year, Royal Jordanian recorded “very weak” travel bookings as, along with the reduction in travel during Ramadan, the war has deterred European tourists, the airline's vice chairman and CE Samer Majali said. “We expected that the situation would be finished but it has continued with more ferocity,” he said. Tourism in countries close to Israel and Palestine is taking a hit because of the incorrect perception that they are all one conflict zone, Al Majali said. “They lump the region as a homogenous unit, which is unfair and bad. It's like saying if there's a tragic killing in a supermarket in the US, then don’t visit America. This is what happens to us,” he said. To mitigate the loss of European inbound traffic to Amman, Royal Jordanian is seeking to carry more transit travellers and more Umrah pilgrims, a strategy that has had “some success but not 100%”. “We are tracking according to budget in the first quarter of this year, which is better than last year, but lower than what we should be doing,” Majali said, citing the impact of the war that began on October 7. Load factors stand at 70% to 75% in the first quarter, which is under the airline's target of 75 to 80%, he said.<br/>