Category Archives for Airlines.
I don’t love the United-JetBlue deal as a consumer. The American partnership created a third viable competitor to Delta and United in New York. It gave real elite benefits. This does not. However it’s just not an antitrust problem.
28-year United Airlines flight attendant Ruben Sanchez killed time in the jumpseat on a Los Angeles – Cleveland redeye chatting theology with another Catholic crewmember. Pride Month started the next day, and Sanchez remarks that the Church “will never believe men give birth or bless same‑sex marriage.”
The flight attendants union – which represents about 20,000 flight attendants and has long embodied the premise that a customer-facing work group could be unionized and still provide exemplary service – appears to be in the midst of an internal scandal.
Delta’s plan to announce new service to both Israel and Saudi Arabia just leaked. The carrier intends to announce both flights from Atlanta.
Delta Air Lines is planning to announce Los Angeles – Hong Kong service in the coming weeks. This has been confirmed by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
There are several lounge projects on the D and E concourses at the Miami airport. American Airlines just announced plans to (1) take the current business class Flagship lounge and fold it into the gate D30 Admiral’s Club space and (2) build a brand new business class lounge.
American’s new Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden offhandedly mentions that “we’ve seen a 10% reduction in gate checked bags just within the first few weeks” of the carrier’s new boarding process.
If they’ve made changes to consciously drive down the number of bags they’re gate checking, that’s actually a huge win for customers and they should be shouting it from the rooftops! I just can’t figure out why they’re seeing this result.
People steal baggage tags off of luggage at baggage claim, and report those bags missing for compensation from the airline.
Twenty percent of Delta Air Lines airfares will be priced by AI by the end of the year, working to figure out how much each individual customer is willing to pay them.
Delta’s latest earnings discussion revealed a major shift in attitude and planning around bringing back upgrades, slashing premium cabin perks that come from buying business class, and promising to eliminate Sky Club overcrowding within the next 18-24 months. There was a lot more packed into this earnigns call than there usually is!
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 »
