American Airlines Attacks JSX, Wants Government Protection From Better Service [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Not every complaint about Airbnb is legitimate (even though many are).

  • Several unions wrote a disingenuous letter asking the government to ban airlines offering new business models like SkyWest’s proposed charter service and JSX. JSX is based in Dallas, offering convenient and pleasant service, so naturally American Airlines wants it banned, too.

    JSX offers service from private terminals, without TSA (but with their own robust identity verification, bag swabbing, and passenger scanning) and this is completely legal because they operate with only 30 seats. They’re also allowed to hire retired captains, and co-pilots with fewer than 1,500 hours. Neither American nor pilot unions like competition, and this is why we can’t have nice things.

  • Bizarre. Delta has produced a documentary which will debut in its inflight entertainment next month called “The Steepest Climb: How Delta Air Lines Navigated the Global Pandemic.” It “tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the 90,000 people of Delta battled the worst crisis in the airline’s history and emerged stronger than ever.”

    Short version should be $9 billion in federal government subsidies, and “90,000 people” didn’t battle the crisis because – while the subsidies were explicitly to keep everyone employed – Delta shed over 30% of these employees.

  • The current iteration of new United uniforms which have been in the works since 2017 and won’t be fully rolled out until 2025.

  • Washington Dulles airport may add VIP terminal

  • European Commission objects to Korean Air-Asiana merger because it means less competition between Europe and South Korea. Delta owns stakes in Korean Air and Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Atlantic announced new London – Seoul service to satisfy regulators over U.K. competition concerns. That’s bizarre, of course, because a supposed competitor announcing service to smooth the ability of other airlines to merge sort of shows the… lack of actual competition?

  • Thai Smile will be merged back into Thai Airways

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. The EU Commission complaining about the Korean/Asiana merger while ignoring the far competition worse Air Europa/Iberia + Lufthansa/ITA mergers is quite rich

  2. So how come JSX doesn’t operate under the same rules as all the other airlines then? Why use the loophole if they are just as good as other airlines?

    How come we have one level of safety for 30 passengers but have 31 and you need a whole different skillset?

  3. I don’t blame American for complaining about JSX. Those regional routes in Texas are high yield revenue. JSX needs to play by the rules like everyone else.

  5. @Chad – first, they are no less safe. second, smaller planes operating under different rules fly all over the country and regularly serve small cities and without that people would wind up driving which is actually much less safe.

    And remember that JSX is a huge employer of retired senior captains, especially from American and Southwest. While pilots complain of fatigue from grueling schedules at major carriers, 90% of JSX pilots return to base and sleep in their own bed each night. Much better for safety!

  6. I’ve been executive platinum for 12 years and CK for 2.
    But JSX offers a better product, flies out of an airport in Dallas closer to the Park Cities, and has far better service. American can offer smaller plane flights from DFW with higher fares and lounge access. Maybe that’ll help. I’m happy paying $1000 RT to Vegas on JSX than $500-600 on AA

  7. Seems that, as usual, people don’t understand that jsx operates under part 135 of CFR 14 and not part 121 as normal airlines do. Yes you, Chad and D3Kingg.
    TSA also doesn’t require normal screening for flights of 31 or less passengers. This is all completely legal, and nothing is stopping the big legacy airlines from doing the same thing. They are complaining because JSX just is better for short haul flights.

  9. At chad- look up Designated Ramp Observer, there is a difference between 50 and 51. At D3Kingg- rules are made by those who don’t have authority to make law and laws are made by our “leaders” that have no interest in representing us.
    As to the reference in the article about Delta – to big to fail is actually too greedy to share.
    As to security – if you want to pay TSA’s small extortion fee of $85, you can be less humiliated for 5yrs. I will not be flying (except maybe JSX) until the Smurf shirts are a faded memory.

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