Category Archives for Airlines.
Masks made sense on planes when, together with HEPA air filtration and downward air flow, they reduced the risk of catching Covid-19 on a plane.
Now vaccines are available. We’re going to have challenges keeping people masked up once they’ve been vaccinated. The rule needs to stay in place now, when most Americans haven’t had a chance to become vaccinated yet. It’s tough to know who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t been.
You can’t split up families. And back-to-front leads to bunching as well. And since those don’t work out as well in practice as in theory, their regular boarding process stands.
This is why airlines all tinker with their process from time to time and never stop tinkering, because they’re never been able to do much to improve – with few exceptions.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby shared that in 1998 he was a Vice President at America West and a single conversation changed his view about change fees, and he’s wanted to eliminate them ever since. It took until August 2020 to do it and then American, Delta, Alaska and JetBlue all followed.
The interesting part of the story isn’t the golf game that game him the epiphany, it’s why it took 22 years for this change to happen.
At most U.S. airlines if a flight attendant provides great service it’s because of their own inner drive. It’s not because of any training program or incentives that the company has set up.
One of the most frustrating thing I hear from cabin crew all the time is about the small percentage of their colleagues who are slackers, who perform poorly and do as little work as possible (increasing the workload for everyone else). This is frustrating because there’s usually very little consequence. And seeing poor performers do just as well as those who provide exemplary service is demoralizing.
The pandemic is lasting longer than many had hoped, even though vaccinations create much hope. Airlines weren’t initially aggressive enough in extending status, or reducing requirements for earning status this year.
Travel may pick up as 2021 progresses. People are getting vaccinated, and CDC guidance notwithstanding that means more people who ‘jab and go’. But that isn’t enough to forestall the need for status extensions.
elta Air Lines and American Express are testing out a new airline ticket financing option for Amex cardmembers. And in the mockup being focus grouped there’s a limited-time no fee offer to spread ticket purchase costs out over 12 months (“12 Months Same As Cash”). I’m told they’re also testing financing for upgrades.
The pilot didn’t even need to make an emergency landing or divert, but they’re suing Qantas for the stress of losing an engine. The airline though says the engine failure isn’t their fault, and isn’t that why they have pilots in the first place?
Alaska Airlines and Delta were friends, turned frenemies, turned competitors as Alaska resisted Delta’s entreaties to become its vassal and Delta responded by building its own hub in Seattle. Delta hasn’t operated as significant a Seattle operation as it has middle of the country hubs during the pandemic, but the rivalry is heating up again between the two.
There aren’t too many $9 fares anymore, and the program has recently been rebranded the Spirit Saver$ Club.
You can definitely make your money back on the program, especially traveling with family, but there are no refunds on membership. Not even when you cancel the same day the annual fee is charged. But a cancelled membership can’t take advantage of its benefits.
The U.S. is targeting mid-May for lifting border restrictions in order to allow land crossings from Canada and Mexico, and international flights from the U.K., Europe and Brazil.
The Biden administration will be revisiting its border restrictions weekly, evaluating how the risk of new variants (already spreading wildly in the U.S. especially B.1.1.7) and protection from vaccines.
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 »
