Category Archives for Airlines.
With United warning of possibly furloughing up to 40% of employees and doing something similar it’s worth underscoring just how successful it appears Southwest Airlines to be as it works to reach a goal of not furloughing anyone at all.
Southwest Airlines has made the most generous offer to its employees to take an ‘early out’ or an extended leave.
Airlines are differentiating their approaches to the pandemic. Offering a better experience is a key strategy to winning business away from other airlines.
For U.S. consumers who do not live in an international gateway city, a connection is required. And as Air Canada brings U.S. flights back online, this matters because they’ve historically been the foreign carrier serving the most U.S. destinations – making the one-stop required for an international trip just as easy via Canada as via many U.S. cities. Air Canada is a direct competitor of U.S. airlines for U.S. passenger international trips.
Before the pandemic American Airlines underperformed the industry. They had more debt and lower profit margins. They had managed to alienate customers, employees, and investors alike. Their own data shows they had chased away frequent flyers.
When American Airlines lost their LATAM partnership last fall the floodgates of criticism finally opened. People were openly asking how the Board of Directors could abide a plummeting share price and broken operation at an airline which seemed strategically adrift?
American Airlines is dropping meals on most domestic flights that are over 2200 miles as well as short haul international. These flights, that have been receiving single tray meal service in first class throughout the pandemic, will get a fruit and cheese plate instead.
Here’s why this ‘first world problem’ actually matters more now than ever.
Domestic flights over 2200 miles will no longer receive meal service and the same applies to close-in international flights, too. Long haul international premium cabins will still receive meals.
Unions take political positions their members disagree with all the time. And members should feel free to communicate with their union leadership over those disagreements. It’s fair to proscribe the time, place and manner for those disagreements – but shocking for a union President to secure for the firing of a union member over an internal union matter.
U.S. airlines now require that passengers wear masks in order to fly. They’ve been lobbying the federal government to require it, but it seems like compliance on planes is actually better than average compared to many states where it’s a legal requirement.
Passengers who have medical reasons not to wear a mask are exempt from the requirement. Delta is going a step farther than other airlines (as they often do, for better and worse) requiring passengers who want to claim a medical exemption to have a medical consult prior to travel. If you’re faking, you get your money back.
I’ve been told by more than one person that in an internal call United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told managers that American Airlines is dumping capacity at low fares, and he says that United won’t follow.
United is selling some cheap tickets, but nothing like what I’m seeing from American right now – like $49 roundtrips on major routes.
Sabre is being used by the FBI to track suspects. Put another way, your digital travel footprints are an open book for law enforcement.
The crazy thing? The government doesn’t actually have explicit authority to do this, and so relies on the 1789 All Writs Act.
In previous challenging times airlines cut back on their cleaning, going as long as 18 months between deep cleans. Now despite losing billions of dollars per quarter airlines have stepped up their level of cleaning every day.
That needs to continue. Covid-19 isn’t the only threat to health. People are going to have this experience fresh in their minds. Masks are likely to persist at least for some, even after they’re no longer required inflight. Airlines and hotels are going to need to compete on clean.
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 »
