Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Pandemic, Schmandemic: United Airlines Is Profitable Again.

by Gary Leff

united plane
Jun 28 2021

United Airlines was the first to really get the seriousness of the pandemic and scale down its operations accordingly. They furloughed almost as many workers as American Airlines did, and cut deeply into management ranks. They’re also though symbolically coming out of pandemic serving alcohol on more flights than competitors and first class meals too.

Some of the tactics they employed to get through the pandemic were downright despicable, such as illegally withholding refunds from customers and devaluing MileagePlus awards when no one was looking. We’ll see what they announce tomorrow about how they plan to make up for these betrayals.

Continue Reading »

So How Well Did Masks Actually Work Against Covid-19?

by Gary Leff

Jun 27 2021

Masks have been highly controversial and some of their biggest flash points have taken place on planes, from passengers getting ejected over not wearing them to the continued U.S. federal mask mandate for transportation when mask requirements are lifted in most other situations.

Perhaps the best mask study to date shows that just telling people they had to wear masks was a mistake. The policy focus should have been on supplying better masks and teaching people how to wear them effectively.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Blames The CARES Act For Lack Of Catering On Dallas Flights

by Gary Leff

one world plane
Jun 26 2021

The CARES Act and successor spending bills gave $79 billion from U.S. taxpayers to airlines. But American Airlines is blaming the laws for its inability to catering flights out of Dallas – Fort Worth with beverages and snacks.

At a recent employee question and answer session, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, a flight attendant asked CEO Doug Parker about catering problems in Dallas and Charlotte. Parker responded by blaming catering companies who have been unable to to hire employees.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines CEO: Why Passenger Mask Incidents May Rise This Summer

by Gary Leff

Jun 26 2021

At a recent American Airlines employee question and answer event, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, a flight attendant asked CEO Doug Parker about frequent inflight incidents with passengers. Parker acknowledged, “much of it is due to the masks, I know.” Parker predicts that the conflicts over masks “may get even harder between now and September 13th.”

Continue Reading »

TSA Will Teach Flight Attendants How To Beat Up Unruly Passengers

by Gary Leff

Jun 24 2021

When David Dao was dragged off of a United Express aircraft and bloodied, the carrier outsourced the dirty work to Chicago Aviation Police.

The TSA, though, has a program to teach flight attendants how to do this themselves. It’s been suspended during the pandemic. But the TSA announced today that they are bringing it back because of the rise of onboard incidents, mostly centered around masks.

Continue Reading »

How Credit Card Rewards And Business Travel Influence The Value Of Miles

by Gary Leff

credit cards
Jun 23 2021

In the June 23 Airlines Confidential podcast, former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza lays out his framework for the circumstances under which to expect airline frequent flyer programs to devalue. He sees strong airline credit card performance as working against devaluation, which I think is incorrect, and he sees the future of business travel doing a lot to determine the value of miles.

Continue Reading »

Frontier Airlines Ditches ‘Covid Recovery’ Surcharge After Just One Day Of Publicity

by Gary Leff

Jun 23 2021

It took just one day but Frontier Airlines is dropping its ‘Covid Recovery’ surcharge. It had explained the extra fee tacked on to tickets as covering the cost of cleaning (as though their planes aren’t expected to be clean otherwise) and personal protective equipment for employees (as though airline safety wasn’t the airline’s responsibility).

Continue Reading »