Category Archives for Airlines.
JetBlue pilots are suing over the airline’s United partnership, arguing that Blue Sky goes far beyond a normal interline deal and crosses into territory their contract was designed to block. The fight could become a serious threat to one of JetBlue’s most important commercial bets, because if the union wins the right to fully arbitrate its grievance, the airline may be forced to redesign parts of the partnership or pay up to keep it alive.
Rove Miles is drawing attention for its 50% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines, but the more surprising feature may be on the hotel side. In some cases, you can redeem Rove points for what amounts to a prepaid hotel stay and still earn the hotel’s own points, elite night credit, and on-property status benefits — something third-party bookings usually kill.
Air Canada flight attendants are objecting as the airline upgrades seats and service on Rouge, its lower-cost leisure subsidiary, arguing that the product is getting too close to mainline. It is really about scope, job protection, and how far an airline can improve a lower-cost brand before it starts threatening higher-paid work.
Lufthansa is testing less cleaning in coach on 20 short-haul routes while continuing to clean business class between flights. The move turns cabin cleaning into a class divide, with premium passengers still getting tidy seats while travelers in back may find dirtier lavatories and trash in the seat back pockets.
Delta has already made clear it wants Austin to become a major growth city, with more gates, more lounges, more flights, and even Seoul in its sights. After adding flights to American’s Miami hub it is now adding Phoenix. As American is distracted by its fight with United at Chicago, Delta is encroaching on American’s hubs.
Air India sent passengers on a flight to nowhere after dispatching a leased ex-Delta Boeing 777 that did not have enough emergency oxygen for the route it was flying. Much of the early coverage blamed the aircraft type or Canada paperwork, but the real problem appears to have been that this specific subfleet was not properly configured for the terrain-critical routing.
Canadian and U.S. fighter jets were scrambled to escort two flights bound for Montreal after authorities realized one passenger was traveling under a false identity after using stolen Aeroplan points to book the trip.
American Airlines did not just lose ground in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago because competition got tougher. Former CEO Doug Parker’s own explanation of route profitability helps reveal a deeper mistake: the airline treated credit card revenue like generic redemption revenue, instead of tying it to the markets and flights that actually made customers choose AAdvantage cards in the first place.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom just gave investors an unusually direct promise about AAdvantage: he said the airline intends to keep its miles more valuable for travel than competing programs. That matters because loyalty is American’s biggest profit engine, and Isom is effectively arguing that the airline will grow credit card revenue by making AAdvantage more attractive to customers — not by gutting redemption value.
JetBlue just lost an early fight in a case testing where federal aviation law ends and state negligence law begins. A judge let a passenger’s claims move forward after she said she was injured while getting off a flight, keeping alive the argument that once a plane reaches the gate and deplaning begins, airlines may no longer be protected by an exclusively federal standard.
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 »
