Category Archives for Airlines.
Most people have gotten back to normal. That includes the airlines, judging from the photos all over twitter of dirty planes. Pandemic travel waivers are over, and basic economy fares are back.
Delta Air Lines has added an option for business class passengers to “Skip First Meal Service” as part of their pre-selections for on board service. Customers fying long haul in the ‘Delta One’ cabin might choose Trout, non-meat Meatballs, chicken breast or to skip the meal. That is described as having an environmental benefit, to “help[..] reduce food waste.”
The airline’s business class passengers, booking the least expensive business class ‘Z’ fare roundtrips on a route like Detroit to Seoul, are currently spending over $8000 roundtrip. And the airline is asking them to help save money on catering bills.
I’ve heard from several readers that have had problems changing American Airlines partner awards. They’re told that unless all flights in the itinerary that they want to keep are available with award space at the time they’re making the change, they’re out of luck. They can’t just keep the award flights they have, and change or drop a segment.
I have no idea what the future holds for Twitter. It was a bloated laggard under CEO Parag Agrawal and before. Musk is blowing things up, and that will either go very well or very badly. But it will be more interesting and more focal for awhile in either case. It seems like a mistake to walk away rather than to be a part of it, at least a little bit even if you’re hedging your bets elsewhere int he meantime.
American Airlines pilots negotiated a contract, but the union voted against sending it to its membership for a vote. Now they’re back in the media negotiating in public, saying that the airline’s failure to pay them enough, and improve their schedules enough, is why flights get cancelled. Even though that isn’t true.
When Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group started popping up in airports and putting its brand on Delta Air Lines meals I suggested it was trading its name and accepting lower quality. It had a brand to cash out on, but the brand meant less as a result. This is going to be true for any chef who enters an airport or licenses their name to an airline – except for Rick Bayless.
For an airline, branding with a chef’s name can signal their investment in food. For a brand, that it no longer cares about quality.
Alaska Airlines Flight Pass subscriptions now have a limited-time promotion for elite status with certain plans purchased through November 30.
With the subscription service you’re prepaying for flights, there are restrictions, and fares especially at the standard pass offering can be a great deal.
Customers buying a ticket from American Airlines, who have a Citibank AAdvantage credit card, are now being given the option to take out a loan to cover the cost of their travel. And since travel has gotten so expensive, the loan amount can be up to $999,999.99.
I’m genuinely trying to figure out what was on the mind of the communications person for airline lobby shop Airlines For America when they offered this defense of current airline seat space standards to the Today show, “Airlines continue to invest in a wide range of innovative technologies to maximize personal space in the cabin.”
United is running an ad campaign attacking Southwest over its inflight product – because if you don’t have Rapid Rewards elite status, buy a premium fare, or pay for ‘Early Bird check-in’ you need to check in 24 hours prior to your flight to avoid being assigned one of the last boarding positions and therefore one of the last shots at picking a seat on board.
But United is worse.
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 »
