British Airways has insisted changes to its loyalty programme will create a fairer system and are not designed to reduce the number of people rewarded. The airline is switching from awarding points based on the distance flown or fare class to the amount spent, at a rate of one point for every pound. To qualify for gold status – which features benefits such as access to first-class lounges and enhanced baggage allowance – customers will generally need to earn 20,000 points per year. The announcement of the changes in late December 2024 led to frequent flyer website headforpoints.com to accuse the airline of “effectively washing its hands of the leisure market”, claiming it will be “impossible to earn gold for small business travellers, economy travellers or self-funded leisure travellers”. On Wednesday, British Airways announced a bonus offer enabling customers to earn up to 550 additional points per flight based on their cabin class will be extended for the rest of the year. It has also introduced a guarantee of bronze status for anyone taking at least 25 flights annually, such as commuters. Benefits for this status include access to business class check-in desks and free seat selection from seven days before departure, even if travelling on an economy ticket.<br/>
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The family of an American killed when a Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 can sue Russia's largest bank for allegedly providing money transfers to a group blamed for downing the plane, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday. In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said state-controlled Sberbank was not entitled to sovereign immunity, after being accused of using the U.S. banking system to funnel donor money to the Russia-backed separatist group Donetsk People's Republic. A U.S.-based lawyer for Sberbank had no immediate comment. Sberbank was not immediately available for comment after business hours in Moscow. The case was brought by the family of Quinn Schansman, who was 18 when he boarded Malaysian flight MH17 to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam on July 17, 2014, for a planned family vacation. The flight was shot down over DPR-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine by a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people on board. Russia has denied involvement. Ukraine had previously declared the DPR a terrorist organization, while the United States had imposed sanctions on the group. Schansman's family sued Sberbank, another Russian bank and two U.S. money transfer companies in April 2019, saying they should be liable for doing business with the DPR. A year later, Russia's Ministry of Finance bought a majority stake in Sberbank from the country's central bank.<br/>
Two former Japan Airlines pilots were suspended from flying by the Japanese transport ministry on Feb 4 for excessive drinking before a flight and lying to their former employer. The ministry said the two former captains “drank alcohol in excess of the limit, although they were aware of the rules” that limit the amount of alcohol consumed 12 hours before a scheduled flight. The men both “gave false explanations to the company after arrival and attempted to cover up the excessive drinking”, the ministry said, giving them suspensions of up to seven months. The pair were fired by Japan Airlines (JAL) after a flight from Melbourne to Tokyo in December was delayed for three hours because alcohol exceeding the allowed limit was detected in their systems. JAL said in January its two most senior executives would take a 30% pay cut for two months over the incident. The transport ministry instructed JAL in 2024 to take preventive measures after a flight from Dallas to Tokyo was cancelled because a pilot had created a disturbance after getting drunk at a hotel.<br/>