United Airlines President Scott Kirby, who has previously served as President of American Airlines (and US Airways and America West before that), is the most ‘by the numbers’ executive in the airline industry today. I’ve called him a destroyer of airlines.
However he’s just given an interview where he actually says that brand matters to an airline’s success in the long run and so more than what’s in the spreadsheet matters. Does the new rhetoric match reality?
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker has finally flown the airline’s new standard coach product, a full nine months after it has entered service.
American debuted a new domestic interior on their first Boeing 737 MAX back in November. That isn’t just the new product that is going on one plane (of which they have 100 on order). They’re taking all of their existing Boeing 737s and replacing the interior with new seats with less distance from seat back to seat back, that have less padding, and no seat back video.
American offered compensation so that the rebooking would be listed as voluntary rather than involuntary, not because DOT requirements were at play here at all.
The passenger agreed to give up their seat for compensation and American agreed to book the passenger onto the next available flight. Due to a delay the next available flight happened to be the original one.
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.
It’s never been as easy or cheap to fly internationally, largely because of ultra low cost carriers across the Atlantic and the rise of Chinese airlines fighting for business from the US and connecting that traffic to Southeast Asia.
However I really value premium cabin fare deals. Because while you can sometimes find transatlantic fares for under $300 roundtrip, and transpacific fares under $400 roundtrip, those would have been great in my youth but I don’t want to fly coach such long distances.
Yesterday I discovered that Korean Air was still listed as a Chase transfer partner one day after it was supposed to be removed.
So I went to check again this morning to see whether Korean Air was still there. It’s not. But a new transfer partner appeared: JetBlue TrueBlue.
Yesterday I helped someone with an Air China first class award. Air China certainly doesn’t have the best first class, and you might think it’s not worth the miles.
This is the story of an award booking that appeared to fail, but where perseverance got it ticketed. However there’s a better approach that takes some of the risk out of award booking.
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.
Chase announced that the last day to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air’s SkyPass program would be Friday, August 24 and that effective today Saturday, August 25 Korean would no longer be a Chase transfer partner.
That notice is still on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website. However Korean Air is also still listed as a transfer partner and the website is allowing me to begin the process of initiating transfers.
Two years ago I wrote about husbands who fly business class while their wives fly coach.
Now from the Washington Post‘s dating column…
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 »
