Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines seems to be gearing up for another run at is single most profitable investment: lobbying in Washington DC. They haven’t been formally engaged by the government over domestic Covid testing requirements, suggesting such a plan may be farther off or less real than some have speculated. And they continue to bring on a lot of new aircraft, seeing that as effectively costless because of cheap financing.
I’ve served as an expert witness in a federal trial about SkyBonus points in the past (and in other sorts of cases as well). I don’t like to see airlines turning commercial disputes over to the government to handle through criminal law.
In this case it seemed clients benefited from the agent’s knowledge, and Delta earned business they wouldn’t otherwise have received. It’s up to Delta whether they want that business of course, but in my view the criminal justice system shouldn’t have become involved. Ultimately prosecutors, looking closely at the facts, agreed that jail time wasn’t an appropriate outcome here either. I was sorry to see Mr. Podolsky go through what he did.
Airlines are looking for new frequent flyer members and are willing to front bonus miles to get them. Traditional frequent flyers aren’t traveling so much now, and flights have a lower proportion of members than airlines are used to. They need a marketing relationship with the people who are flying, in order to encourage them to fly more and take their credit cards.
With Alaska’s renewed partnership with American Airlines, oneworld membership starting March 31, distance-based earning (not revenue-based!) and pledge not to devalue their award chart without notice they’re likely a strong option for many.
On this morning’s American Airlines earnings call, still ongoing, Chairman and CEO Doug Parker opened saying he wasn’t going to comment on recent moves in their stock.
Their stock has been rising with 29% of its float currently shorted and worldwide attention being paid to GameStop.
American is ‘evaluating’ whether these trial meal boxes will be rolled out more broadly. Over the summer employees were told we wouldn’t see a return of first class meals as they used to be, but hopefully this isn’t all there will be for awhile. What do you think?
Ghana’s aviation ministry is continuing the long tradition of African governments complaining about British Airways. This time they’re unhappy that BA plans to operate its Accra flight to London’s Gatwick airport instead of Heathrow. And they are threatening ‘reciprocal action’ against the airline in response.
There are fewer of these passengers today, with borders closed and testing requirements in place. Furthermore there’s very little international business travel. And frequent flyers with club memberships have been flying less as well.
So the real fight is for leisure passengers, many of whom haven’t been frequent flyers, and they’re mostly traveling to close-in destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico. And American is expanding airport club lounge access as a result.
The U.S. is now considering requiring testing not just for international travel back to the U.S. but for domestic travel as well.
There may have been merit in this a year ago. Now it’s unlikely to make a big difference. Both in the past, and now, the challenge for effectiveness is availability of cheap widespread at-home tests that people can take every day.
I am an advocate of following the rules of a program that you’ve agreed to, and I counsel against selling points and miles because the risks involved generally aren’t worth it (cancelled tickets, shut down accounts, ban from the airline).
In the case of a carrier that shut down its transatlantic operation, that a customer doesn’t intend to fly again, I’m not so sure that taking a haircut on the value of these points to get something out of them isn’t the worst strategy. What do you think?
a memo has gone out from American Airlines to travel agents, available on its SalesLink platform warning them that the carrier is cracking down on a variety of ticketing techniques, including hidden city ticketing and ‘churning’.
Over the summer I wrote about American directly investigating customers for ticketing practices that violate the airline’s rules, and more recently confronting customers at the airport and demanding passengers pay up for their past sins against the airline. Now they’re warning tagents.
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 »
