News and notes from around the interweb:
- Inside the 2017 United Global Services welcome kit
- Lanzaron vuelos a Cuba y no sé por qué: From the very beginning I’ve said that US airline flights to Cuba would be a money losing proposition — high airport costs, low yield leisure traffic, demand on only one side (US). Unsurprisingly we’ve seen tons of fare sales, plenty of award availability, and already American cut three flights and downgauged two others.
Now it seems JetBlue will be operating smaller planes on all its routes. You might expect that in advance of summer for its New York flight, but Fort Lauderdale and Orlando service ought to be at least somewhat less seasonal.
- United’s pilots are asking President Trump for trade protectionism against Norwegian Air.
They are requesting “strictly enforcing the text of the Open Skies agreement with the European Union” although strict and literal reading of the Open Skies agreement would mean allowing Norwegian to fly. After many years the Department of Transportation finally approved Norwegian’s Irish subsidiary to fly to the U.S., finding that there was simply no legal basis on which to say no.
Copyright william87 / 123RF Stock Photo - Meanwhile the CEO of Qatar Airways backs Trump.
“President Trump is trying to protect the interests of his country the same way I am trying to protect the interests of my country and my airline,” Stuff reported Al Baker, as saying. He added that Trump’s intellect as a businessman will ultimately prevail, especially seeking out ways to secure the best interest for his country.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker with Donald and Melania Trump in 1997, via Doha News - Jason Steele on what credit cards celebrities use (HT: @Chucksth)
- Passenger who claimed to find a note about a bomb last month aboard a United flight faces prison time.
- Someone I’ve never heard of but who is apparently famous was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight. So naturally the all seeing, all knowing lenses of TMZ were there. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
Competition is good. If United wants to beat Norwegian then they should do it with better service and more convenient flight schedules. Consumers need more choices not less choices. It’s United’s own fault if people prefer to fly a budget airline like Norwegian over United. What does that say about United?
Huh; I would have expected a bit more out of the GS kit — it looks only slightly upgraded from the 1K.
This year we got all 4 of the standard tier kits due to UA not thinking we were going to meet tier requirements (even though we had a trip to Asia booked). So, my partner got a Silver kit, later replaced with a Gold kit and I got a Platinum kit, later replaced with 1K.
Silver/Gold/Platinum kits are basically identical except (I think, going from memory now):
Silver: No card, 1 luggage tag
Gold: Card, 1 luggage tag
Platinum, Card, 2 luggage tags, 5 drink vouchers
1K comes in an registered mail box with a card, 2 tags, 10 drink vouchers, and that destination guide booklet (which is a cute touch).
Interesting that Gary’s post says the pilots made a “plea”, whereas the original article says “put pressure on President Trump”. 😉
I’d say compared to Schumer, Pelosi, Judge Robart, and virtually the entire MSM, Trump’s not going to be phased at all by “pressure” from the UA pilots union. Especially after that anti-Trump speech Munoz gave yesterday. 🙂
The argument against Norwegian Air Shuttle is less clear cut than the argument against the Middle East airlines, because Norwegian is a real “for profit” enterprise while the Middle East airlines are sinkholes for astonishing and endless government subsidies. In other words, the US airlines can (and will) compete fairly against Norwegian.
That said, I have some sympathy for the United pilots. Norway isn’t in the EU and their Irish subsidiary is plainly a flag of convenience. There would be nothing wrong with the USA saying “no” to such nonsense. I would certainly expect the EU to say “no” if Southwest suddenly opened an Irish subsidiary and started flying between Paris and Frankfurt.
At the end of the day, I don’t think it will matter. Norwegian’s transatlantic business plan is at least as illogical and uneconomic as the Middle East airlines’ strategy, and without billions in subsidies to prop it up, it will almost certainly fail. And that will be the end of this “problem” for ALPA.