Category Archives for Airlines.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby laid out the competitive landscape of the airline industry for his employees. United is doing well, Kirby is overly optimistic. He offers important insights but the path is far more fraught for the airline than he lets on.
Upgrades are tough out there. First class doesn’t cost as much as it used to when airlines sold only about 10% of the seats up front. Planes are full and plenty of people have status. They’re more likely to pay for first class outright. And airlines sell first class upgrades aggressively. There are far fewer leftover seats available complimentary to those with airline status.
Now, at least, American Airlines will reward you when you buy a coach ticket and take their paid offer for an upgrade.
Qatar Airways has had great award pricing for short-distance travel on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. What’s more, their points are easy to come by. Unfortunately, Qatar has devalued these redemptions without notice.
The government now has until August 16th to conclude its review. An additional day means those involved in the negotiations think they’re close – close enough that a deal is possible, and without much more time.
Lufthansa was at one point reported to be the world’s largest buyer of caviar, based on service in its first class cabin. Offering caviar across the board on Qatar Airways long haul business class would surely make them the world’s largest caviar buyer.
Once Southwest starts flying Hawaii redeyes (which lets them reach destinations further east) they won’t need as many intra-island flights to maintain six flights per gate. We could see fewer intra-island flights as a result, if redeyes are additive to current Hawaii-mainland operations.
JetBlue stock plunged over 20% on Monday, as it worked to raise $3 billion in fresh capital. $2.75 billion will be backed by its TrueBlue program – which largely means the expected future earnings from its credit card partnership.
It’s no secret that JetBlue has struggled with its transatlantic flights. Right now that’s to our benefit because they’re making business class award space widely available across a number of their flights, in some cases between now and end of spring, and for at least two and sometimes more passengers at a time.
There are a number of issues that flight attendants are unhappy with in the new contract their union negotiated with American. The last time cabin crew voted on a contract, they voted it down. The union is doing a good job selling it, in my opinion, but the membership is clearly divided – and their powerful LAX base president has given new voice to the opposition.
Singapore Airlines has struggled with service to Houston since launching in summer 2008. Initially they operated one-stop from Houston to Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Singapore. In October 2016 that switched to Houston – Manchester, U.K. – Singapore.
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 »
