Category Archives for Airlines.
Customers are booking travel later than ever before. Forward bookings for November down 75% for both American and United, and down 89% for Delta compared to the same point last year, so airlines are making changes to their schedules closer in also because they don’t know what travel patterns will actually look like. It’s a game of chicken between traveler and airline.
American Airlines recently shared a memo with employees, “Best practices for team members: Face covering compliance and customer aggression.”
Perhaps most shocking is that American Airlines has announced internally that mask wearing is more important than D0, an exact on time departure. None of this helps, of course, when it’s the flight attendant not wearing a mask.
Delta raised $9 billion, backed by its SkyMiles program. They broke SkyMiles into three new separate Cayman Islands companies: SkyMiles Holdings, SkyMiles IP, and SkyMiles IP Finance.
As part of the deal they had to agree not to start a competing frequent flyer program, and they had to agree to limits on devaluing the program.
American Airlines has been threatening to leave small cities if Congress doesn’t extend another $25 billion in payroll support. However one of the provisions of the CARES Act says an airline taking subsidized loans – which American just did – can be ordered by the Secretary of Transportation to continue service to small towns, as well as anywhere that it’s necessary for pharmaceutical supply chains.
No further legislation or subsidy is required to insist on continued air service. Any city losing American Airlines air service now only does so because the federal government has decided to permit it.
American Airlines mortgaged their AAdvantage program with the federal government, using it as collateral for a subsidized $5.5 billion loan. The government will get warrants to purchase stock in the airline – and the assets of the frequent flyer program itself if the airline defaults.
American Airlines announced they were going to stop serving 15 cities effective October 7, after government payroll subsidies ran out.
With two of the cities they couldn’t legally drop service because of agreements they’d entered into with the Department of Transportation but forgotten about.
You can generally buy yourself an extra seat on U.S. airlines. With airfares low, this can be a great deal.
American Airlines doesn’t promote the option, but they even have a no procedure to allow you to use credits from previous trips to pay for your extra seat.
American’s argument boils down to DOT rules were never updated for the information age so they’re permitted to keep their rules off the website where customers would normally expect to find them. As American puts it, “[t]he tariff public inspection requirements were first adopted by the Civil
Aeronautics Board (“CAB”) in 1965, well before the development of the World Wide Web.”
In other words, American says they haven’t broken any rules because the rules themselves are broken.
Southwest has a rather impressive promotion: book a ticket by Thursday, September 24, 2020 and fly by November 15, 2020 and you will earn a companion pass valid from January 6, 2021 through February 28, 2021. That’s nearly two months of companion pass flying after buying and flying a single ticket.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and the coronavirus pandemic has created plenty of necessity. Thai Airways is in the midst of restructuring and they’re looking for revenue anywhere they can find it.
Among the course options, for 2800 Baht ($89) you can learn to be a flight attendant. Their safety course lets you head down the emergency slide and put a real fire out on a plane. You can even take cooking classes to make inflight Thai meals.
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 »
