Category Archives for Airlines.
Two quick stories about customer focus help me put in context a conversation that’s been happening on LinkedIn among airline executives.
A passenger had to be removed from an American Airlines flight to Charlotte over their refusal to wear a mask. So far, just like any other day in travel since 75% of airline incidents reported to the FAA this year have involved masks.
But the pilot of this flight followed the passenger’s ejection with a speech to those on board in which he declared himself God on the aircraft as he implored everyone to follow the rules.
After the threat was determined to be a hoax, and the problem passenger detained, the rest of the passengers had to hold their hands on their heads for nearly an hour. They couldn’t take their hands down, because the captain didn’t say Simon Says. And everyone was held in the terminal while the aircraft was searched on arrival. Nothing was found.
Singapore Airlines flies from Houston to Manchester, U.K. and from there on to Singapore. This is the flight that used to stop in Moscow. Operated by an Airbus A350, award availability is wide open in business class from November through end of schedule.
Plane Food Simulator 2021 is a free online game where you… try to eat food on a plane.
This isn’t hard because of all the Covid Cutbacks, and your airline just isn’t serving food. You choose your meal type (you can even pick a Japanese meal!) but you have to deal with turbulence and other challenges along the way.
American Airlines said last month that all Admirals Clubs except Honolulu were said to re-open ‘by August’ while Flagship lounges and First Dining would begin with Miami in September.
American now tells me they’ve already re-opened 35 of 40 Admirals Clubs. The five that are still closed will open in August.
All airlines have had long hold times, but Delta’s have generally been the longest. And their website doesn’t do a lot of the things you might need, like handling schedule changes well and erroring out with simple tasks.
Delta’s CEO was asked about what they’re doing to address telephone hold times, and what customers should do for help in the meantime, during the airline’s earnings call.
Even with the acquisition of more (used) Boeing aircraft, this move will make Delta less invested in aircraft from Boeing and its predecessors than before the pandemic since they’ve retired Boeing 777s, MD88s and MD90s.
Hyatt and American Airlines have new offers to fast track towards elite status for current elite members of the other program. Hyatt even gives free temporary status while you work on your challenge. They aren’t super easy, or with American necessarily the best way to achieve status we’ve seen in the market, however.
Last month I covered the passenger lawsuit to overturn the federal transportation mask mandate. Some of the arguments in the suit are legally persuasive, but included a lot of unpersuasive claims as well. I expected that the suit would be made moot by the expiration (and non-renewal) of the mask mandate on September 13, 2021 – before the case gets adjudicated.
However a couple of things have happened since then.
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 »
