Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for April 2018.

How Hotel Loyalty Programs Fail to Deliver Heads in Beds

tropical hotel pool
Apr 08 2018

The CEO of Red Lion hotels slammed loyalty programs pretty hard but I’m not sure the actual lessons come through in his thinking.

Red Lion acquired Knights Inn from Wyndham, blocking Wyndham’s attempt to own every bad hotel in America. And Red Lion CEO Greg Mount threw some shade at Wyndham Rewards, suggesting that ‘only Hilton and Marriott’ get traction from their loyalty programs.

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American Airlines Employees React to Deferring 737 MAX Deliveries

back of airplane seats
Apr 08 2018

Along with American’s decision to order new Boeing 787s to replacing aging 767s, 777-200s, and A330s, they’ve deferred delivery of 40 out of the 100 Boeing 737 MAXs they’ve ordered. These now aren’t scheduled to be delivered until 2025 – 2026.

One employee commented on American’s internal message board that “Maybe AA is really listening to the customers and decided the MAX isn’t all too popular!” Unfortunately that’s not how this will work.

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Why Qatar is Buying 25% of Vnukovo Airport

qatarplane
Apr 07 2018

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker loves to ‘rub salt in the wounds’ and said that’s why he launched Doha – Atlanta. The airline loves to pick up awards, and so does the man himself. So it’s a double win for them to be Atlanta airport’s cargo airline of the year. There’s little question though that Qatar Airways is a tool of Qatar diplomacy. That’s why they struck a deal go give up nothing while settling complaints from United, Delta and American that they’re subsidized. It not only puts the issue behind them at little cost it put the UAE’s Emirates and Etihad in an awkward spot. Qatar agreed not to operate fifth freedom flights to the U.S., something they have zero interest in doing. Meanwhile Emirates does already operate fifth freedom flights. Their agreement…

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The Secret to a Good Meal on American Airlines

airplane food
Apr 07 2018

I’ve been a critic of American Airlines domestic first class meals, though I’ve had multiple people tell me that the current chicken meatballs aren’t bad and the short rib is better than some of the other choices.

American Airlines lets you pre-select your meal up to 24 hours prior to departure. That’s not like Singapore Airlines where you get a wide variety of choices. Instead you’re mostly just choosing from among the options that would be available onboard. But…

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