Category Archives for Airlines.
There are times you need to fix the name on a ticket, and times you need to change the name on a ticket altogether. Here’s the latest guidance from American Airlines on how to make this happen.
Some airlines are silly ideas from the start. A local business leader decides the best opportunity for a new airline happens to be flying from their city. But even where there are good ideas for an airline – an underserved market, a new product, a lower fare that stimulates demand – many such markets aren’t good all year round. And upstarts have a more difficult time since it’s harder to diversify their flying across more routes and established bases of customers.
The challenge any new airline faces, starting up to serve a highly seasonal set of routes, is what do you do during the off-season?
According to a White House official, President Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg plan to introduce new airline regulations along the lines of Europe’s EU261 compensation rules that require payment to passengers for flight cancellations that are within the carrier’s control as well as in the event of significant delays.
Allegiant Air executives believe ticket sales will remain strong in a recession because their flight product is an inferior good, and their credit card deal is more lucrative than anyone realizes because it generates 90% margins. I’m not sure either of these cashes out exactly as strong as they claim.
Several air travel unions are going to the government, trying to get new air carriers banned, because they are… legal and competitive. They even cite offering a better, more compelling product to passengers as a problem. Regional carrier SkyWest created a subsidiary to run public charter flights under FAA Part 135 rules. This lets then fly planes with no more than 30 seats which have a captain that meets the 1500 hour rule but allows a co-pilot with fewer hours. The plan involved taking CRJ-200 50-seat regional jets and taking out seats. That’s actually great for passengers. And SkyWest planned to do this on poor-performing routes, where there weren’t that many passengers to begin with, like subsidized Essential Air Service routes. That keeps air service to small cities which are rapidly seeing flights dry up…
There are a lot of things that are unpleasant as an airline passenger. One is how little legroom your ticket buys, though there are options to pay more money to get more space. There is a right way and a wrong way to take matters into your own hands if you’re frustrated by a reclining passenger.
The problem with United’s boarding isn’t just that they board earlier but how their gates are set up: boarding pens. Passengers line up in their assigned group, with each group having a different area (airport and gate-allowing), far in advance of boarding.
American is sending out marketing emails to members offering to let them straight up buy elite status. This isn’t the usual ‘buy back status you lost last year’ or even ‘buy a level of status higher than what you earned’ (which historically has generated over $30 million per year in revenue).
Instead, American is sending out offers to members who do not have status at all – members who may not have flown them in years – and offing to let them buy Gold or Platinum status through March 2024 directly.
You need something on the side, and what enhances the burger experience more than great fries? United Airlines will actually make the huge step of trying to deliver fries with their burger – heated in the oven on board and available on hub-to-hub flights starting May 10.
Scott Chandler, who is American’s Vice President of Revenue Management, explained why customers who purposely book longer connections – not wanting the stress of running from gate to gate, especially when their first flight is delayed – wind up losing those longer connections when the airline runs a schedule change.
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 »
