American Airlines ConciergeKey members receive Hyatt Globalist status. It seems like Hyatt is extending a similar reciprocal benefit to some of their top tier Globalist members. Surprisingly, these Globalists – rather than rarified Courtesy Card members – are being given American Airlines Executive Platinum for 2020 (expires January 2021).
Basic Economy holds less potential for Southwest Airlines than it does for major carriers, at least while they lack pre-assigned seating.
The value in basic economy is less the $20 each way buy up they might charge leisure travelers, and more the way it is used to segment business travelers to keep them buying higher fares.
In order to get value out of basic economy Southwest would have to assign such customers the last boarding position, so that basic economy customers get the worst seats, otherwise there’ll be little reason not to buy the fares and pay for more expensive fares instead.
I’ve been a frequent critic of American Airlines, and that’s largely because I believe no U.S. airline has greater potential to be better than it is today than American. I’m also frustrated with many things about its loyalty program, AAdvantage, but when I sit down to compare AAdvantage to the programs offered by United and by Delta it actually comes out ahead. Here’s why.
American’s on-time performance and frequency of cancelled flights was appalling over the summer. I’ve highlighted the bad news, so let’s also highlight the good news. November was much much better.
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She says that her seniority meant she was earning $250,000 a year as a flight attendant and that Delta just wanted to replace her with someone cheaper and younger and she says “her bosses dismissed her for taking a carton of milk off a plane after her line manager gave her permission.”
Reportedly her termination was for “improperly pa[ying] a co-worker to work her position and later fail[ing] to work at her designated position on a different flight. She was also accused of stealing aircraft items for personal use and spiking her coffee with alcohol during a flight.”
UNLV’s Professor Stephen Miller, who runs their Center for Business and Economic Research, finds that resort and parking fees are driving Southern California visitors from Las Vegas.
There are actually some very basic propositions here, each one of which is completely obvious.
The Southwest Airlines elite status challenge, which gives you 3 months of status and an expedited path to keep it for a year, has several quirks. One is that the status lasts literally a year, not the full next year. Another is that once the year is up you can sign up for another challenge.
I discovered a third quirk and that’s that you may want to time just when you complete your challenge. Here’s why.
American Airlines says very little about ConciergeKey status. There’s no published criteria for earning it. Most of the benefits are secret. But ConciergeKey members are taken care of by the airline, even when things go wrong. And that status has just been awarded for next year.
Oscar Munoz is leaving United as CEO and Scott Kirby will take on that job May 20, 2020. Munoz will become Executive Chairman for one year. United’s current chair, former FAA administrator Jane Garvey, will retire from the board at that point. This mirrors predictions I have offered here for some time.
Though there’s been some growth – and will need to be more as Kirby steps into the CEO role – Kirby’s history is one that suggests management from the spreadsheets. He’s taken things too far in the past, such as elimination of elite bonus miles and a plan to charge for water on board at US Airways, moves where he’s had to reverse course. It remains to be seen whether he can moderate those tendencies as he formally takes the reins at United.
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 »
