Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines flight attendants have a generally weak union. Sara Nelson’s larger Association of Flight Attendants has eyed coming in and taking over. AFA-CWA even sent masks to legacy US Airways flight attendants during the pandemic, telling me they still consider those crewmembers to be members of their union.
It’s no wonder that they aren’t seeing the concessions they’re after from American Airlines in contract negotiations.
Markets began tanking this morning on a higher than expected 8.2% increase in the Consumer Price Index. Food and energy costs are drivers of this, but so is airfare.
Here’s why fares are going up, and why the airlines – through their conscious decisions – have caused a piece of inflation that’s driving down markets.
Airlines get an outsized portion of blame for carbon emissions. While global air travel represents perhaps 4% of emissions, half of that is cargo. In response to the criticism airlines are pledging to do better and reduce emissions. Long-term that may be real, but short-term measures are largely greenwashing.
Delta and Starbucks have a new reciprocal earning partnership, which is only upside. There’s even a bonus for linking your accounts, which you should do in order not to leave miles on the table.
Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016 and did away with the Virgin brand. Virgin had a nicer first class product, so it was sad to see planes reconfigured. Alaska committed to its Boeing fleet, in contrast to Virgin’s Airbus narrowbodies.
What did Alaska get out of the deal? Slots and gates at congested airports, many of which Alaska has walked away from or underutilized. And they overpaid in a $2.6 billion deal for the privilege, having outbid JetBlue.
As a Dallas-based airline, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that American Airlines doesn’t know what a bagel is. There’s really strong Asian food in Houston (especially Vietnamese) but not as much in the Dallas Metroplex. So perhaps it’s not surprising that the folks working on American’s food and beverage team aren’t familiar with Asian cuisine, either.
Especially on sub-1500 mile routes, American Airlines meals can be disappointing. The watchword here is inconsistency. I expect that out of my home town of Austin where catering hasn’t been able to keep up with American Airlines growth, and meal provisioning has frequently had to be trucked in from Houston.
Still I was especially non-plussed by the options presented to me for my recent Austin – Charlotte – Austin flights in first class. The turkey sandwich even reared its ugly head. For dinner!
A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing her airline after the captain in charge of flight WN6607 from Philadelphia to Orlando on August 10, 2020 pleaded guilty “to dead-bolting the cockpit door during a flight and stripping naked in front of her.”
As she explains it, the flight was the first time she’d met the man. He said it was hire retirement flight (though he actually continued to fly for 3 more weeks). And he shared that there was “something he wanted to do” before he retired.
Delta is doubling down on the requirement that you not only fly a minimum amount to earn elite status, but spend a minimum amount with the airline, too. There are no changes to how much you need to fly – just how much you need to spend. And they’re updating choice benefits for Platinum and Diamond members.
When you reach a million mile threshold with Delta SkyMiles, they offer you a choice of gift. It’s a really nice touch, or at least it was. The program was paused during the pandemic, and just re-launched. So everyone who earned million mile status since the program went on hiatus (or earned a selection, but their selection didn’t ship prior to Covid) was invited to pick a gift from the new program.
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 »
