Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom

Earlier this week, JetBlue became the first airline in the United States to increase checked bag fees in recent times. This is an area where JetBlue tends to “lead,” and there’s now an update, as one of the “big three” carriers has followed JetBlue’s lead. United tries to boost revenue with higher checked bag fees Airlines are obviously in an incredibly tough spot at the moment. We’ve seen a massive increase in fuel costs, which is one of the biggest variable expenses that airlines have. If oil prices don’t decrease from these levels, even the world’s most profitable airlines will…

Jet fuel prices have more than doubled since the start of Operation Epic Fury, but the financial damage is landing unevenly across the global airline industry. The difference comes down to a single question: who hedged, and who didn’t? Since hostilities began on February 28, 2026, spot prices have surged from roughly $96 a barrel to as high as $197, driven by the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the loss of refinery output across the Persian Gulf. On April 3, 2026, northwest European jet fuel hit $1,840 per metric ton on the Platts assessment, a new record. …

By Bjorn Fehrm April 3, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We have started a series of articles on the Blended Wing Body (BWB) as a potentially more efficient design for passenger-carrying airliners than the classical Tube And Wing (TAW) configuration. In the third article last week, we saw that the large wing surface area of a Blended Wing Body does not come from cruise-phase requirements; it comes from the lift needed in the landing phase, where BWBs lack flaps to increase wing lift. It needs a large wing area to compensate. Now we will see that the wingspan does not come…

Disconnecting and reconnecting pipes can be laborious. Assuming the pipes use permanent fittings, you may have to cut them. An alternative to permanent fittings, however, is pipe unions. Pipe unions eliminate the need for cutting while allowing pipes to be quickly connected and disconnected. Here’s everything you need to know about pipe unions. What Are Pipe Unions? Pipe unions are specialized fittings that connect two threaded pipes (or tubes). As shown in the adjacent photo, they feature threaded ends. You can connect two threaded pipes to the ends of a pipe union. If you need to disconnect the pipes, you…

For quite some time, Air France-KLM Flying Blue has been offering a paid status match promotion. This status match has long had residency requirements for eligibility, and that continues to be the case. The good news is that we’ve just seen the list of eligible countries expanded, and it now includes the United States and Canada, among other countries. The website statusmatch.com is currently partnering with Air France-KLM Flying Blue to offer a status match promotion, with the option to earn Silver, Gold, or Platinum status. This offer is available to residents of several countries, at different price points, and…

Nowadays the major airlines in the United States earn much of their profits from their loyalty programs, and in particular, their co-branded credit card businesses. Even though the “big three” carriers are already raking in billions per year from these programs, they still see a lot of upside. As a result, a lot of the decisions that we see at airlines are based on trying to increase credit card revenue. Free inflight Wi-Fi? It’s all about getting loyalty program sign-ups, so that airlines can market to members. New destinations? They’re also about getting people interested in the loyalty program, by…

It has been an absolutely wild several weeks in the Middle East, as the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran, which took out some top Iranian officials. In response, Iran launched drone attacks on nearby countries, including targeting airports, hotels, and more. Weeks later, there’s no end in sight to this conflict, and one wonders how much longer this will drag on. There’s no denying that people are suddenly looking at airlines in the Gulf region a little bit differently, and I’d like to talk about that a bit more in this post… Could this conflict be…

Honestly, it’s sort of refreshing to see airlines hold pranksters accountable every so often… Influencer sets off stink bomb on transatlantic Avianca flight Influencer Yeferson Cossio has a massive online presence, with nearly 20 million followers on TikTok, nearly 13 million followers on Instagram, etc. On March 11, 2026, the Colombian national was flying with Avianca on flight AV46 from Bogota (BOG) to Madrid (MAD), and reportedly set off a stink bomb, a small device containing a chemical odor generator. Obviously odors inside an aircraft cabin can be incredibly unpleasant, but even beyond that, they can cause safety concerns. After…

Welcome to my next trip report series, which covers a review trip that I took in late 2025. I’m a bit behind on trip reports, but hope to be largely caught up by the end of the month.This review trip will include flight reviews on Porter, Air France, Aircalin, Thai Airways, and SWISS, plus hotel reviews from Canada, France, and Thailand! Of course there will also be lounge reviews. Why I took this tripThis was a review trip, plain and simple, so I took this trip in order to be able to experience as many interesting airline and hotel products…

NASA’s Artemis II crew is now officially on its way to the Moon after Orion’s service module engine fired on April 2, 2026, for the translunar injection burn, the mission-defining maneuver that sent the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and onto its outbound path toward a lunar flyby. Mission control and the crew both polled “go” ahead of the burn, which NASA had said would last about five minutes. With the successful maneuver, Artemis II became humanity’s first crewed mission bound for the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA’s published mission timeline shows Orion is scheduled to make its…