Category Archives for Airlines.
In Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder intentionally produce a flop on Broadway. They oversold shares in the production many times, and planned to run away with investors’ money. In the 1967 film “Springtime For Hitler and Germany” was an ironic, surprise smash hit. In 2023, Delta’s changes to the SkyMiles program are producing equal and opposite amounts of outrage.
Recently-announced Delta SkyMiles changes to elite status have underscored for me that stretching to earn top status just no longer makes sense for most people. If you are hub captive, and flying one airline enough anyway to earn status-fine. But what does top tier get you? The real sweet spot is mid-tier status anyway.
American Airlines is dropping New York LaGuardia to Kansas City for November through March (and possibly beyond). They had been operating two regional jets daily. They are also dropping New York LaGuardia to Houston Intercontinental for November through March (and possibly beyond).
The airline’s LaGuardia departures are down 13% compared to 9 months earlier and that is even as American is getting slots back from JetBlue with the unwinding of the partnership between the two carriers.
Southwest Airlines is offering 50% off base fares using promo code WOW50.
StatusMatch.com which is currently offering a lucrative status match with Frontier Airlines (up to top tier, open to people that have matched before, and even matching against hotel and cruise programs).
They now also have a a status match offering with LATAM, the South American megacarrier that left oneworld to link up with Delta Air Lines. And they’re even matching up to Black status.
Delta is demanding more from customers without giving them any more in return, and rewarding them with a currency that it worth less than what customers can earn elsewhere. And their bet is that a small subset of cardmembers will increase their spend so much as to offset those who cancel and the bulk of cardmembers for whom the changes aren’t designed to incent spend.
Open seating on Southwest Airlines means Lord Of The Flies… or sometimes Thunderdome. That doesn’t work for everyone, but I actually like it.
Journalist, former Presidential speechwriter, and private pilot James Fallows complained on twitter about his United flight that was delayed just under 24 hours – and he attributes the decision to delay rather than cancel the flight to an anti-consumer conspiracy.
His followers on twitter are wrongly led to believe that this is so passengers aren’t entitled to a refund. Nothing could be further from the truh.
After Delta Air Lines announced it was going all Keyser Söze on its elite frequent flyers, and acting like the master manipulator who leaves no loose ends, even if it means betraying those who trust him, there’s a clear opening for competing airlines.
American Airlines launched service between New York JFK and Delhi in November 2021. They ran into diplomatic roadblocks getting permission to fly over Russia, leading to more circuitous routings which meant that the flight would occasionally have to divert and crew would time out.
Then, once Russia invaded Ukraine, U.S. airlines weren’t permitted to overfly Russia at all. That’s made service to India tougher for United, too.
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 »
