Category Archives for Airlines.
The thing that struck me most about the cheese plate – aside from how sad it was – is that is consists of big chunks of cheese, crackers, grapes and a chocolate. But there is no plastic knife to slice the cheese. So you’re stuck taking big bites out of these cheese chunks. It is… awkward.
When I was first traveling for work, the first class cabin was mostly upgrades. And that meant it was frequent business travelers, who skewed middle aged and male. First class fares have come down a lot, there are plenty of upsells to leisure travelers, and as little as 13% of first class seats may be going to upgrades (Delta, but other airlines are catching up to them). The demographics of who is sitting up front have changed, but there are still remnants of the past.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both offer burgers as one of their domestic first class catering options. American Airlines is joining the burger bandwagon.
Sliders and fries are heated at the same temperature as the rest of American’s entree choices, for a period of 30 minutes. Condiments apparently do not accompany the meal tray but are available on request.
A couple of weeks ago I revealed exclusively that American Airlines CEO Robert Isom had pivoted to begin talking about a premium focus in the airline’s strategy. In employee remarks following the airline’s fourth quarter earnings call, Isom talked about attracting customers willing to pay more for better services.
He said that the airline is going to have a “rededication and a renewal to focus on the customer experience.” And he talked about this as “the next order of business, we’re going to organize around this.” And says “you’re going to hear some things very soon.” The start of this appears to be today’s news.
Airlines used to treat award travel customers better than customers on paid tickets. After all, passengers traveling on points had shown a lot of loyalty to get there. It was their reward, and the trip was something to be celebrated!
That’s not really true anymore, but until now only Delta has been willing to say so explicitly.
Delta made international headlines, having to tell candidates for flight attendant roles that they need to wear underwear when showing up for an interview. It turns out that the airline is doing a lot more judging by appearance at hiring events.
Airlines are at risk of killing their golden goose. Miles motivate customers, but customers need to be able to use their miles. Airlines have gotten better at selling their seats for cash, frequent flyer programs want to retain their margins, and so members get squeezed.
As a result, airline executives call for ‘revisiting the model’ of frequent flyer programs – the model that made them successful, multi-billion dollar enterprises.
Delta Air Lines became only the fourth-most on-time airline in the U.S. last month, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. Their January statistics are out:
At Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in northeastern China, a familiar scene unfolds every time an Air Koryo flight readies for Pyongyang. As soon as passengers clear passport control, there’s a dash towards the KFC in the departures hall. The fast food outpost gets cleaned out of hamburgers and chicken burgers. They’re bringing the burgers back home with them.
United is leaving American behind in the dust at Chicago O’Hare, and competed head-to-head with Delta in the ‘premium lane’ of U.S. air travel across the country. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re investing more in their product, investing in their technology, and consistently surprising customers with inflight milestone recognition. Well, it seems they have something new up their sleeve.
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 »
