Northern Winter Weather Delays

Winter storms early this week brought fresh snow and new flight cancellations and delays from the U.S. Midwest through the Eastern Seaboard. Although the snow has largely slowed or stopped, many airlines and airport are experiencing residual delays or bumping passengers as they try to return to normal. Airlines including Frontier, JetBlue, United, American and Delta have issued weather waivers, allowing passengers to change some flight plans without paying fees.

 

New Airline Routes and Route Changes

South America

British Airways will reduce operations between London Heathrow Airport and Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport from seven weekly flights to five.

 

Bogotá

Mexico and Central America

As of April 25, LANColombia will push its Saturday Bogota-Cancun flight back by four hours to be in line with the other five weekly flights on that route.

 

Aeromexico will launch a new nonstop daily flight between Mexico's Monterrey International Airport and Miami International Airport on March 26.

 

Volaris will begin nonstop service between Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Mexico's Guadalajara International Airport in March.

 

Southwest Airlines will launch service between Baltimore/Washington International Airport (Maryland, U.S.) and San Jose, Costa Rica on March 7.

 

Caribbean

GOL Airlines has extended one of its weekly Sao Paulo-Barbados flights to include Tobago.

 

Delta Airlines has begun weekly seasonal service between the U.S. (Minnesota) "twin cities" of Minneapolis/St. Paul and both Montego Bay, Jamaica and Nassau, Bahamas.

 

Southwest Airlines will begin Saturday-only service between Houston (Texas) Hobby Airport and Aruba's Queen Beatrix International Airport on March 7.

 

Southwest will cancel routes between Atlanta (Georgia, U.S.) and both Aruba and Montego Bay as of March 1, and will cancel routes between Atlanta and San Juan, Puerto Rico as of March 7.

 

International Connections

Frontier Airlines will begin daily nonstop service between Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Miami International Airport on March 6.

 

American Airlines will begin service between Miami International Airport and the U.S. cities of Austin, San Antonio, Kansas City and Salt Lake City on March 5.

 

Etihad Airways has announced schedule changes to flights between Abu Dhabi International Airport and Toronto's Pearson, New York's John F. Kennedy International and Chicago O'Hare airports. The changes will connect with key destinations for the airline.

 

Emirates Airlines will launch a fourth daily flight between New York-JFK and Abu Dhabi on March 8.

 

On March 15 Philippines-Philippine Airlines will begin four weekly flights between Manila and New York via Vancouver.

 

Iberia Express will introduce new northern summer 2015 service with three weekly flights between Tenerife North and London's Heathrow and four weekly flights between Las Palmas and Heathrow.

  

Airline Alliance News

Avianca expanded its codeshare service with United, placing its AV code on 10 new United flights within the U.S., including seven flights out of Chicago and three out of Orlando.

 

Other Airline News

Air Costa Rica launched with plans to operate Boeing 737s to Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua and Colombia. The airline, which is a joint venture between Costa Rican business interests and Air Panama, is currently in the certification process.

 

Southwest Airlines has added new craft beers to its menu: Leinenkugel's seasonal craft selections and Dos Equis Lager Especial. Each beer will cost US$5.

 

Air Alaska will offer free premium inflight entertainment directly to traveler's mobile devices through March 31.

 

American Airlines announced it will begin regularly scheduled flights between Miami and Cuba as soon as the U.S. government legalizes such flights. American already flies some charter flights between Miami and Cuba.

 

Loyalty Program News

United will offer Mileage Plus premium-fare bonus incentives through February 28.

 

Citibank has added Virgin Atlantic to its growing list of transfer partners for Citi ThankYou Premier, Citi Prestige, and Citi Chairman ThankYou points.

 

American Airlines and US Airways are encouraging mileage program members to "match" their accounts by making sure all profile details are identical, in order to more easily merge the accounts later this year.

 

AAdvantage members can earn double miles from now through March 20 when flying American Airlines or Japan Airlines on specific routes between the U.S. and Asia.

 

From now until March 31, Virgin America Elevate members can earn double points for flights on specific routes - including Dallas and New York or Washington, D.C.; Boston-Las Vegas; and New York to Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Las Vegas or Palm Springs.

 

Customers who sign up for a new IHG Rewards Club Select credit card through March 31 will earn a 70,000-point bonus after spending $1,000 during the first three months of having the card.

 

Club Carlson members can earn 10,000 bonus points per night when booking the MEGAPTS rate at around 100 Radisson hotels in North and South America through the end of 2015.

 

Hyatt Gold passport members can register on the Hyatt website before April 30 to gain access to personalized exclusive offers via the Stay More Play More promotion.

 

Between January 1 and December 31, 2015, Ritz-Carlton Rewards members will receive double elite credit for every qualifying Ritz-Carlton night.

 

Hotel News

Hyatt introduced Hyatt Centric, a new lifestyle brand that will launch in summer 2015. The brand, aimed at both leisure and business travelers, will focus on a local feel, collaborating with local vendors to offer locally-inspired bathroom amenities, food and cocktails.

 

Excellence Group Luxury Hotels and Resorts will open the all-inclusive Finest Playa Mujeres on March 1. The resort will include 450 suites, including swim-up units; nine restaurants; 10 pools; a fitness center and spa.

 

Travel Services

Frommers is now offering a free basic version of its translator app for iOS, Android and mobile devices. The app features basic translation for 13 languages. The full versions is available for $49.99 annually.

 

American Express will launch service for credit card users in Cuba beginning in March. The U.S.-based company had previously been barred from operating in Cuba by U.S. rules.

 

Online travel booking company Expedia has acquired Travelocity for $280 million in cash. Travelocity has been outsourcing operations to Expedia since 2013.

 

Users of online travel booking site Kayak.com can now search for hotel and flight information for Cuba but cannot book travel directly from the site.

 

OneSimCard, which provides low-cost international cellular roaming, now offers its services in Cuba and throughout Latin America. Its prices vary between countries, with free incoming mobile calls or text messages in many Latin American countries, outgoing calls priced from US$0.49 per minute and Internet data from US$0.85 per MB. A OneSimCard user prepays for service and swaps the SIM card in his or her device with a OneSimCard when traveling.