At an employee Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, November 12 at LaGuardia airport, American Airlines Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja shared how the airline is thinking about the New York market going forward. Here are 8 observations he offered about what’s changing for American in New York.
One reader did a bit of a double take at the FAQs for credit card earning in the new American Airlines elite program.
At an employee town hall event at New York LaGuardia on Tuesday, held as the elimiantion of the Northeast Shuttle was being announced, Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja explained the decision. He offered that the things that made the Shuttle different were outdated, like newspapers (Covid and the internet), free drinks (changing norms), and rear-door deplaning (changes to airports).
Moskito Island – right next to Necker Island – was purchased by Richard Branson in 2007. I spent the weekend at the Oasis Estate there. Here’s what it’s like.
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.
In mid-July Citibank points suddenly became transferable to American Airlines. That was a huge surprise and for many cardmembers with Prestige and Premier products a nice increase in the value of their points. Citi hadn’t had one of the large U.S. airlines as a transfer partner.
In fact, it was odd that American Airlines wasn’t a transfer partner before this. And odder still that the relationship was introduced as temporary, running only though November 13.
The Citibank and Barclays premium consumer cards get a year’s grace period on their spend threshold bonuses for elite status under the new Loyalty Points system of qualifying for AAdvantage elite. The Barclays business card, however, does not.
And, it seems, Barclays wasn’t just able to remove this benefit from its applications and instead has taken the applications down – they can’t promise something to cardmembers they aren’t going to deliver.
Singapore Airlines sweats all the small details, not just the mechanical ones. They built a model Airbus A380 using manila envelopes and the seats inside the plane even reclined. Tag line: “It’s the small details that make giants in the sky.” Bingo.
Which brings me to meal service on American Airlines.
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 has more debt than competitors and financially underperforms the industry. It’s had unhappy investors, unhappy employees, and unhappy customers. In fall 2019, after American lost its joint venture with South American megacarrier LATAM to Delta, there was a lot of speculation that management would be ousted. There was a low-level leadership reshuffle, but no one at the top left.
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 »
