Category Archives for Airlines.
Three weeks ago I revealed that American Airlines had brought restaurant-style ordering of hot food items to its Flagship lounges. American has now announced this change – along with several others.
Passengers on an Israeli airline flight bound for Slovenia ended up in Croatia instead after Slovenian authorities refused to let the plane land, forcing travelers to continue by ground to Ljubljana – all on the last day of the outgoing Slovenia which has been anti-Israel, before a new friendlier government took power.
A Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 bound for Los Angeles had its nose gear collapse or unexpectedly retract, injuring several employees. The flight was canceled, and passengers may now be eligible for EU261 compensation that could reach $200,000.
Delta is telling investors the real business behind free Wi-Fi: getting passengers logged in so the airline can turn the entire travel day into a commerce, content, loyalty, and advertising platform. The app, website, onboard Wi-Fi, seatback screens, Amex, Uber, Starbucks, Airbnb, Amazon, media partners, and Delta Concierge AI all keep customers inside Delta’s ecosystem long enough to monetize far more than the ticket.
Spirit’s shutdown may have helped the rest of the airline industry, but JetBlue founder Dave Neeleman says Frontier may now face the harder question: whether there is still room for its discount-airline model at all. With larger carriers matching low fares through basic economy while offering better products, Frontier is left trying to make money as the last major ultra low cost “spill carrier.”
The UK is developing a disruptive passenger blacklist that could let one airline’s ban follow a traveler across other carriers. That may sound appealing when someone assaults crew or forces a diversion, but without clear standards, due process, fixed limits, and meaningful appeal rights, it risks turning airline customer-service disputes into government-coordinated travel bans by private companies.
oneworld elites are getting a new hotel benefit: discounts and status across Taj, The Pierre, St. James Court, Vivanta, Ginger and more than 600 other Indian Hotels Company properties. For American and Alaska elites, this turns airline status into hotel savings and Taj InnerCircle – NeuPass status — while top Taj members can now move the other way into oneworld airline status.
Delta sees Los Angeles as a rare chance to break a long-running three-way fight with American and United, and internal plans point to a bigger push at LAX while its rivals are constrained. American has pulled back, United’s facilities are limited, smaller carriers have shrunk, and Delta wants to turn that opening into more premium customers, more loyalty, and more Amex spend in one of the country’s most valuable travel markets.
American Airlines has now been dropped from the Dow Jones Transportation Average, two years after being kicked out of the S&P 500. Its stock price had fallen so far that it carried less than 0.5% weight in the price-weighted index — while Delta, United, Southwest, and even Alaska remain.
American Airlines spent the pandemic shrinking into a more domestic, partner-dependent airline, retiring 40% of its long-haul fleet and avoiding new widebody orders for years. Now, as management tries to reposition American as a premium global carrier, a new widebody order appears back on the table — with Boeing 787s and Airbus A330neos looking more plausible than they have in years.
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 »
