Monthly Archives for July 2024.
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.
American Airlines will drop its third daily Los Angeles – London Heathrow roundtrip effective with the start of the IATA winter season on October 27, 2024. They will also suspend service from Phoenix to London Heathrow for the winter season, from October 27, 2024 through March 28, 2025. These changes will load into the schedule this weekend.
After the City of New Plymouth on the North Island of New Zealand reacted to a change.org petition by considering banning g-string bikinis from public pools, Air New Zealand added flights to the South Pacific to give customers “freedom of choice” in their swimwear.
Vasu Raja staked out bold positions. He felt too strongly that the airline’s schedule was its product – rather than its service and experience. He architected their Sun Belt focus and shift away from managed travel. And he elevated the centrality of the carrier’s loyalty program as part of its core business strategy and not just as a financial instrument.
American Airlines flight 2045 from San Francisco to Miami was forced to evacuate due to a fire inside the aircraft cabin on Friday.
The Airbus A321 was boarding for its trip to Miami at 12:15 p.m. when smoke reportedly filled the cabin, and crew evacuated the aircraft. Passengers exited via both emergency slides and the still-attached jetbridge.
A federal judge has issued a ruling permitting Westchester County airport to limit flights out of private terminals by carriers that sell seats to the public.
Westchester County wishes it didn’t have an airport. However they can’t shut it down. They’ve taken federal grant money, so federal rules apply. Nonetheless they make it as tough to operate there as possible.
An Alaska Airlines baggage agent at Newark air[port faced off with a customer over delayed luggage, losing it not just on the customer but with another passenger who tried to help de-escalate things.
Delta Air Lines confirmed during its second quarter earnings call a plan for ‘basic business.’ Just like they have ‘unbundled’ economy class, offering basic economy that doesn’t allow changes or mileage-earning and where you don’t get to pick your own seat, they view ‘unbundling’ of the features of business class a new step in maximizing revenue from customers.
Delta Air Lines is earning half the industry’s profit. They had a 13.6% operating margin and made $1.3 billion in the last quarter. That’s great – except that both figures are down year-over-year and the airline lowered its guidance for the third quarter as well. Their stock lost 8% of its value at the open on Thursday’s morning’s announcement, though it gained half of that back by the end of the trading day.
The airline’s spin is that there’s too much capacity, and the problem is other airlines, but the industry is correcting itself. In other words, the problem isn’t Delta, and going forward Delta won’t have a problem. I don’t think this actually makes sense.
Savings on stays is the interesting play with Expedia’s OneKey Rewards, and the easiest way to earn status that yields that savings is by having one of their new credit cards from Wells Fargo.
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 »
