Category Archives for Airlines.
At last weeks State of the Airline employee event following American’s third quarter earnings call, Raja explained the strategy and offered that we may even see a whole row given out as an elite benefit on some ultra low cost carrier partners.
The new American Airlines elite status-earning system going into effect next year makes it super easy to keep elite status if you engage with the program across a variety of earning streams, rather than just by flying. Here are 10 takeaways on what’s going on with the new program.
The new American Airlines elite status-earning program that goes into effect next year is going to make some flyers very happy. Anyone who can spend a lot on credit cards is going to find status-earning much easier. In fact, you can earn Executive Platinum status with $200,000 in spend alone.
It turns out that in addition to having a longer period in which to do credit card spend, you don’t even need to spend as much next year.
New York LaGuardia, New York JFK and Washington National airports are ‘slot controlled’. That means there are limits on the number of takeoffs and landings at each airport, and the right to use those have been given (free!) to incumbent airlines as a property right. That’s a huge subsidy to incumbent carriers.
Normally slots come with ‘use it or lose it’ rules. If an airline doesn’t make use of their slots 80% of the time, those slots can be reassigned to another carrier. As a result you’ll see airlines flying more or less ghost flights, service designed to hold the slot rather than meet any economic need.
American Airlines stock has gone up substantially more than airline peers over the last 12 months.
CEO Doug Parker highlighted this in an employee meeting following the carrier’s third quarter earnings call on Thursday. However rather than being a testament to the airline’s good works as he suggests, there’s a simple reason for the growth in share price.
American Airlines passengers are complaining about the hotel room that American Airlines assigned to them for an overnight mechanical delay (and also about getting rebooked to a different city than their destination). It seems three people were given just one room, leaving one person on the floor.
The 29 year old has been listed among the world’s highest paid models and as one of the British “makers of the 21st century” but, apparently, had a connection with Irish carrier Aer Lingus that was severed by the pandemic.
Anthony Fauci has said he wants a vaccine requirement for domestic air travel. I don’t think this would be legal, impinging as it does on the right to travel. As a commercial decision by an airline, without government pressure, to offer a vaccinated flight option it seems like a great idea.
So let’s give this a shot, see if the requirement attracts more business and shifts market share. I’d go out of my way, flying at less convenient times and an airline I don’t usually choose, to know that the person in the middle seat next to me is far less likely to have and spread Covid.
This is about government regulation and the bottom line at American Airlines, it isn’t about safety. Sadly, even United Airlines which presents its vaccine mandate as being somehow more noble, imposes no such condition on passengers traveling. I’d certainly choose to fly an airline where I knew the person in the middle seat next to me was vaccinated. No U.S. airline is offering this in a meaningful way.
Prior to the merger with US Airways, American Airlines crew would generally stay together on a trip and even stay on the same aircraft. When a flight delayed, it was only that flight and crew which were affected (and subsequent flights scheduled with the same aircraft).
US Airways management took over and eliminated this practice. When a plane lands at a hub, crew disperse on separate journeys. When a flight delays, that means each flight attendant and pilot going their own way delays a flight. There’s a cascading effect on the operation.
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 »
