Category Archives for Airlines.
JetBlue does a really nice job with their onboard soft product. Maybe too nice of a job, considering they don’t seem to be earning a revenue premium on their transatlantic flights.
They’re promoting new meals and amenity kits. The meals seem good enough, the amenity kits interesting (especially with American Airlines handing out cardboard boxes), but what is really striking to me is the wine that they’re hardly even promoting.
This is seriously cool. JSX is going to run a special solar eclipse-viewing flight on April 8th. One of their pilots is ex-NASA. And they’re giving away the seats.
United Airlines has real claim to being the U.S. global carrier. They’re already the only U.S. airline flying to the Philippines – having launched Manila service – and now will fly to Cebu there as well (via Tokyo). They’ll add service to Morocco – direct to Marrakesh – and to Medellin, Colombia. Fifth freedom flying from Japan and love for their Houston hub make these adds even more interesting.
While the Airbus A321XLR is still in the future – the aircraft hasn’t been certified yet, so Airbus can’t deliver any – American is beginning the process of switching its existing fleet of A321T planes into the standard, less luxurious configuration.
Delta Air Lines has moved to spending only as a metric for earning status. And they’re considering no longer awarding full credit for your spending, unless you buy more expensive fares. That’s one lesson of a new product survey they’re sending to frequent flyers that helps them sort through how much extra customers will pay to earn qualifying dollars.
Other ideas being tested include bringing back change fees unless customers buy up to a more expensive fare and return of fees for getting help from reservations, with free assistance via chat features only.
Last Spring United Airlines introduced wings with crew names and pronouns. These replaced separate nametags and crew wings. And the flight attendants union filed a grievance – not against the option to display pronouns, but because they say this jeopardized flight attendant safety.
American Airlines upgrades on Qantas are now live. It’s managed by PlusGrade, the company that sells ‘bidding for upgrade’ programs to airlines. And it’s a “cash or miles” upgrade option. Basically you have the ability to upgrade on Qantas, as a Qantas member might, but pay using AAdvantage miles. And this is the oneworld upgrade program.
Southwest has a government-granted near monopoly at Dallas Love Field airport. The airline, which fought tooth and nail for the right to be allowed to fly there as an upstart, now uses government to keep out competition.
During the American Airlines Investor Day on Monday afternoon, an analyst asked whether American would be open to re-starting its partnership with JetBlue. When the government sued to break up the deal, the judge in the case argued that it’s carving up who flies where that was an anti-trust violation. The judge’s decision was clear that a partnership along the lines of how American and Alaska Airlines work together in their ‘West Coast Alliance’ would have been legal.
American Airlines held its Investor Day on Monday afternoon. There was a surprising amount about the AAdvantage program in the discussion, in addition to what you’d expect about airline strategy.
We can expect to see some changes in how miles are awarded (more miles), new redemption options, and better redemptions for members with status. And there’s an explicit commitment not just to defend the value of their miles, but to ensure their currency provides greater value per mile than competitor airlines and even banks do.
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 »
