Category Archives for Airlines.
The President of the American AAdvantage program says they’re working on something to replace award charts. He says has ‘no plans to devalue’ which means, of course, that he’s planning to devalue the program but not call it a devaluation. How do we know this?
Award charts are the fundamental cornerstone of a loyalty value proposition.. Always and everywhere that a frequent flyer program has dropped award charts it has meant big devaluations. There are no exceptions.
With planes full again, there’s so much pressure to get out right at “D0” that one gate agent shared a story on social media of leaving people behind at the gate. There were seats available because some customers didn’t show, and the agent wasn’t able to put employees waiting to travel on the flight in their place – because it would have meant an extra couple of minutes, which the airline won’t abide.
First class comes at a higher price point than coach and comes bundled with additional services, including drink service. The irony of course is that the difference between first class and coach really shrunk throughout the pandemic.
Meal service hasn’t returned in earnest to most domestic flights up front, with packaged cold items the norm on many domestic flights – and even that was an improvement over what airlines had been serving. In other words, first class passengers saw more cost cuts than those who were just buying transportation. There’s ‘an aviation angle’ to the axe any writer has to grind. But it’s almost always wrong.
United Airlines is running a sweepstakes giving away free travel to people that have been vaccinated. But they won’t consider someone getting AstraZeneca shots to be vaccinated. Anyone who took AstraZeneca needs to follow the same mail-in route to enter as a vaccine refusenik.
On June 7 passengers on board an American Airlines flight 2511 from Los Angeles to Charlotte got rowdy after a flight delay. Crew were initially kind and apologized. However one flight attendant summoned his inner Howard Beale from the film Network and decided he wasn’t going to take it any more.
The whole cabin applauded.
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson is calling for a federal ban on inflight alcohol. It’s a movement that has a long history, dating to efforts for such a ban by segregationist Strom Thurmond in the mid-1950s, making many of the same arguments then that she makes today.
For years Austin has been one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the country, tracking the city’s growth more generally. Before the pandemic American Airlines was looking at three new routes to augment its flights to hubs.
Earlier this year they announced 10 new routes. The ones that have launched are doing well. Now they’re announcing 14 new routes, 5 of which are international. They’re converting seasonal service to year-round. And adding frequencies to existing routes. All in all they’re quadrupling their destinations in a little over a year.
Forget “Fight For 15!” The Air Line Pilots Association is lobbying for a new bill released by House Transportation Committee Chairman Pete DeFazio (D-Airlines For America) among others that would effectively prevent foreign airlines from flying to the U.S. if they aren’t paying competitive wages.
The measure is also being supported by the Allied Pilots Association (American Airlines pilots), Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (Sara Nelson), International Association of Machinists, Teamsters, Transportation Workers Union, UNITE HERE and others. We thought the campaign by U.S. airlines against Open Skies Treaties was over but now we have the ‘Fair and Open Skies Act’.
American Airlines is re-opening its Flagship international business class lounges and most of its Flagship First Dining this fall, starting with Miami. They’re also re-opening all of their Admirals Clubs except Honolulu this summer. And they’re going to introduce a new way for premium passengers to access Flagship.
That’s wonderful because these lounges were fantastic. United’s Polaris lounges were probably a step above American’s Flagship lounges, but Flagship lounges were open to many more people and nicer than anything American had ever done before. American’s Flagship First Dining product was nicer than anything any U.S. airline has done in recent years, period.
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 »
