Monthly Archives for October 2018.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Here’s what it’s like not to have elite status on American Airlines. This is a two hour flight. In order to avoid paying extra for seats on top of their fare, and avoid a middle seat, these passengers are able to book something only in the last two rows of the aircraft.
It taught me something about basic economy — and why it is going to perform worse for American as they make the travel experience worse — and I noticed another big failure during the booking process as well.
After American’s earnings call senior executives took questions from employees at their State of the Airline event.
Kurt Stache, American’s Senior Vice President Marketing, Loyalty & Sales, was asked 3 questions about American’s inflight entertainment and wifi products.
One American Airlines route stands out to be as an aberration: Meridian, Mississippi to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. That’s a flight of just 69 miles, and it’s operated once daily in both directions with a Bombardier CRJ-200 50 seat regional jet.
To get a quick understanding for why this route exists — and persists under current management — Glazer’s law helps do some of the lifting.
After American’s third quarter earnings call late in the week, executives gathered for their internal ‘State of the Airline’ comments to employees along with question and answer session. Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja answered questions about the airline’s route plans in a “network speed round.”
Here are key takeaways:
In August United Airlines President Scott Kirby explains all of their fees and charges as being what you’d expect from a concert, implying it’s not reasonable for people to be frustrated with how airlines charge for things like seats.
In March American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said his airline’s tickets are flexible compared to buying a seat at a sporting event.
American Airlines is losing money on the part of their business which involves flying people. It turns out that American’s passenger operation would look even worse if it hadn’t been for an accounting rules change (ASC 606) that the airline had to adopt effective January 1, 2018.
The accounting rules change of course may be the best possible way to reflect the costs associated with issuing miles. It also has the effect of moving a quarter billion dollars of passenger revenue out of past years and into the present, making the present look better than it otherwise would have as a result.
There’s a 90 day free trial offer for top tier Spire Elite status.
The offer may be targeted at attracting business from specific companies, and IHG doesn’t list which companies they’re interested in. The offer lets anyone register and confirms registration.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Programs issue too many miles. There aren’t enough award seats, especially with planes flying full. They need to either increase the number of award seats or increase the cost of each seat, otherwise you just have frustrated members who can’t redeem.
At the same time programs don’t need to spend as much marketing to fill planes when planes are already full. But that’s an argument for reduced earning, not for changing redemption prices.
Programs with set award prices (award charts) usually devalue in a predictable way.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
