Category Archives for Airlines.
It isn’t often that Delta copies United but, like American, they’re also going to waive change fees. All three of course are copying Southwest Airlines – which doesn’t charge baggage fees either.
While Delta’s announcement was rushed out because of United’s move, they’ve actually been considering doing this for some time. They were talking about rethinking change fees at the beginning of 2020.
United announced an end to change fees on most domestic tickets. American matched in less than a day, including more destinations. They’re extending change fee waivers on international, basic economy, and award tickets to the end of the year. And they’re letting Basic Economy customers have elite benefits again, too.
After taking over at American Airlines, management spent $12.4 billion buying back stock over a six year period at an average price of $39.76 per share. Now they’re facing over $40 billion in debt and looking for a second government bailout this year.
At an internal Crew News session at the end of last week, a pilot asked the airline’s CEO Doug Parker if the airline is able to claw its way back, whether he’d change the way the airline is run – paying down debt instead of buying stock?
According to Vasu Raja, we can expect more point-to-point leisure routes, changes to the airline’s fee structure, and changes to AAdvantage with business travelers gone. The airline is trying to see itself as “more like a $2 billion startup than a $45 billion airline that lost a lot of stuff.”
Speaking to a group of pilots at the end of last week, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker laid out plans not to cut flights further during the winter this year and to grow the schedule for next year even in advance of passenger demand.
With all of the employees that have taken early retirement, that should mean recalling everyone that’s being furloughed.
United Airlines is offering free same day standby starting January 1, and eliminating change fees on domestic tickets (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands but not other territories) effective immediately though this excludes basic economy tickets. A waiver of change fees for basic economy and international ticket purchases is being extended through the end of the year.
All MileagePlus elite members can confirm same day changes at check-in provided the same fare class is available. Currently complimentary same day changes are only available to Gold members and above.
In a meaningful sense U.S. airlines are no longer private businesses, they’re vassals of the state. And that’s not surprising. While the largest carriers have given only a small potential ownership stake to the U.S. government in the form of warrants in exchange for subsidies this year, they’ve been effectively converted from commercial enterprises working to satisfy customers into political creatures working to satisfy “the powers that be,” as American Airlines CEO Doug Parker calls them.
Speaking to a group of American Airlines pilots at the end of last week, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, Parker said lobbying in DC is “frankly where I’ve been spending all of my time.”
This week we learned that Abbott Laboratories received an FDA Emergency Use Authorization for a faster and cheaper Covid-19 test than anything currently on the market.
Fast and cheap testing is one of the ways to bring travel back to normal. It would allow customers to travel with confidence, knowing that those around them are virus-free. And it would allow destinations to open up, knowing that people shedding the virus weren’t entering.
United is selling flights at specific times, earning customer business on the basis of that schedule, and then reneging – not because they’re unable to operate the flights, but because they decide it’s cheaper not to deliver what customers purchased.
Selling flights and then cancelling them for reasons entirely within the airline’s control, for their own benefit, while 23% of rebooked customers are impacted by more than four hours is an unfair and deceptive practice. Customers whose travels are adversely affected to a significant degree should file a complaint with the Department of Transportation.
On August 20th American Airlines announced plans to drop air service to 15 cities unless the government forked over another $6 billion in subsidies. The cities were spread across 14 states (28 Senators!) and many of the airports slated to lose service October 7 are represented by members of the House Transportation Committee.
However the plan was too clever by half. No one at American Airlines realized the problems dropping service to 3 of the cities on the list, and just as I’ve predicted they are now backtracking.
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 »
