Category Archives for Airlines.
Delta Air Lines paid 13 passengers on an overbooked Boston to Rome flight up to $4,000 each – plus covered their hotel rooms for the night – to get them to give up their seats.
The flight had already boarded when an agent came on board still looking for volunteers, and she ran an auction. You can hear her raising the price to $3,500 begging someone to “take one for the team” and “go shopping.”
Don’t talk during the safety demonstration, expect flight attendants to help with your bags, or poke flight attendants.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom was named the world’s best airline CEO. That may be debatable, but the airline’s board has awarded him a rich compensation package potentially worth over $26 million.
It’s not April Fool’s or Backwards Day, yet reportedly ultra low cost carrier Frontier Airlines is considering adding first class to its planes – and Sun Country is considering an airport lounge in Minneapolis, at a time when Delta with its Minneapolis hub is kicking passengers out of lounges.
There’s a shot across the bow of aviation – an intellectual case is being made for airlines to revert to the status of public utilities. Sitaraman’s upcoming book can be seen as a starting gun for arguments over regulating the airline industry. The arguments for this used to be unserious, by folks like Robert Kuttner. That’s changing, and with a direct line to people in power.
People who care about not making air travel worse need to wake up to the threat, though there is also much we should be doing that would make air travel better.
Should the first class overhead bins be for first class passengers only? And if so, should a passenger get kicked off of the flight when they disagree – even if they move their bag back to coach?
American and United are in many ways rising. Delta isn’t as good as it once was, though that could change. Ultimately brand follows the underlying reality, even if imperfectly and with a lag.
Delta is not a good enough airline to keep doubling down on the path of low value miles, expecting more from the consumer, and seeing the consumer continue to respond.
The Emirates Airbus A380 is special. First class features suites with doors, though there are better first class suites. Emirates has an amazing food and beverage program, often including $500 wines and even more expensive cognacs. And it has two on board showers. There’s also the business class bar.
But it’s an expensive product, both spending cash and spending miles. You’ll have to spend a lot more miles than most programs require for comparable travel. Except there’s a route where they give the seats away for less than the wine you can drink on board.
United Airlines currently flies from Newark to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, and from Washington Dulles to Cape Town. Newark – Johannesburg is the airline’s second longest route.
The longest distance that United Airlines currently flies is 8,446 miles on board San Francisco – Singapore. That’s a sixteen and a half hour flight (an hour less on the return from Singapore).
Delta explains that, as a Diamond member, customers are already hitting $20,000 in spend on tickets. So just spend $150,000 on their $550 annual fee credit card and “You may not be that far off in your ability to reach Diamond status for 2025.”
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 »
