Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Southwest Airlines Wins Court Ruling To Stop Website From Publishing Its Schedules And Fares

by Gary Leff on October 4, 2021

Oct 04 2021

Kiwi.com did seem pretty blatant in what it was doing, but banning the publication of flight information seems both overbroad and prior restraint on free speech. I regularly publish “Southwest flight [and] fare information” on this site. They are even barred from “committing any other acts in violation of Southwests Terms & Conditions.”

The Kiwi.com case is about the power of website terms and conditions, and a company to control information it publishes publicly on the internet.

Southwest Airlines Wins Court Ruling To Stop Website From Publishing Its Schedules And Fares

by Gary Leff on October 4, 2021

Oct 04 2021

Kiwi.com did seem pretty blatant in what it was doing, but banning the publication of flight information seems both overbroad and prior restraint on free speech. I regularly publish “Southwest flight [and] fare information” on this site. They are even barred from “committing any other acts in violation of Southwests Terms & Conditions.”

The Kiwi.com case is about the power of website terms and conditions, and a company to control information it publishes publicly on the internet.

This Air India Plane Just Got Stuck Underneath a Bridge. It’ll Take An Engineering Trick To Get It Out.

by Gary Leff on October 3, 2021

Oct 03 2021

A retired Air India Airbus A320 got stuck under a bridge at the Delhi-Gurugram highway near the Delhi airport. In video going viral on social media, you can see not just the aircraft that’s stuck but also traffic backing up behind it. This isn’t the first time this has happened.. to Air India aircraft.

American Airlines: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish, And Saddled With $40 Billion In Debt

by Gary Leff on October 3, 2021

Oct 03 2021

American Airlines, and in particular current Tempe management, is known in the industry for being ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’

They spend lavishly on aircraft, investing in foreign airlines, and a new corporate headquarters (now supported with $10 billion in taxpayer cash over the last 18 months) while taking short cuts on employee pay and customer experience. And it winds up costing them more money in the long run.

American Airlines Dropped Service To Three Cities. The Government Finally Let Them Do It.

by Gary Leff on October 3, 2021

Oct 03 2021

In exchange for $79 billion in direct subsidies from the federal government, airlines agreed not to drop any of the routes they flew before the pandemic without permission from the Department of Transportation.

JetBlue Partners With American, But Wants You To Know Their Product Is Much Better

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

Oct 02 2021

If a customer goes to the JetBlue website and books a JetBlue flight, they expect the JetBlue product. Having to pay for wifi, getting less legroom, and with no seat back television is going to be jarring. And it risks undermining the brand JetBlue has built.

American Airlines Will Put More Business Class Seats On Planes

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

first class cabin

Oct 02 2021

Legacy US Airways planes were heavily skewed towards lots of economy seats. US Airways didn’t sell a lot of premium seats, and when they did they sold those seats cheaply, which matched both their route network and their inflight product.

When US Airways management took over American Airlines they set out to take business class seats out of planes and add seats to lower cabins. Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja suggests this needs to change.

Delta Airlines Launching New Flights That Prove American-JetBlue Partnership Increases Competition

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

Oct 02 2021

The American Airlines-JetBlue codeshares cover New York and Boston. American’s new New York – Tel Aviv and Athens routes are both served by Delta. Now Delta is retaliating against that new service by adding the same destinations from Boston.

Is Delta doing anything here other than proving that the American Airlines-JetBlue partnership spurs competition in the Northeast?

Not Service, Not Seats: To American’s Chief Revenue Officer The Schedule Is The Product

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

airline cabin

Oct 02 2021

Vasu Raja is American’s Chief Revenue Officer. He’s risen rapidly in the organization during the pandemic. I love listening to him because he makes bold claims about the world, sometimes not entirely backed by facts or evidence. But he’s never mealy-mouthed in his assessments.

European Airlines Finally Agree To Refund Customers For Flights Cancelled During The Pandemic

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

airplane tickets

Oct 02 2021

At the start of the pandemic airlines were cancelling flights – and keeping customers’ money. The U.S. Department of Transportation generally forced U.S. airlines to provide refunds, and pursued foreign carriers too.

E.U. consumer protection, generally thought to be stronger than in the U.S., came down on the side of the customer – but couldn’t actually do anything about it. European airlines have been stealing passenger money for 18 months.

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 »