Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

How Airlines Choose To Make Upgrades Available, And Why One Airline Can Do Better

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines plane
Sep 06 2020

Here’s how airlines decide to make confirmable upgrade space available. They project how many first class seats they may sell in the cabin, and leave a buffer.

Seats that they know won’t be sold for cash might be given away as upgrades – but they also want to make sure that frequent flyers don’t confirm upgrades instead of paying cash so they’ll limit upgrades even still (often to when first class seats are available inexpensively – then the revenue tradeoff isn’t great, and the temptation not to pay cash is small).

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Southwest Airlines Fires A Shot At American Airlines In Miami

by Gary Leff

Sep 05 2020

What makes Miami surprising is that it’s the type of market the ‘old Southwest’ would never have entered. They already have a huge operation in Fort Lauderdale, and a smaller one at West Palm Beach and while they aren’t exactly the same markets there’s huge overlap. Southwest always favored the less expensive airports, and avoided congested business hubs.

Miami is one of the more expensive airports to operate from in the U.S. This was, if not an explicit policy of pre-merger American Airlines to drive up airport costs, something that their management sat by and was ok with happening – because it chased all the low cost carriers to Fort Lauderdale. That’s changing.

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The Real Reason Airlines Eliminated Domestic Change Fees

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Sep 04 2020

The change isn’t about being ‘customer friendly’ and it wasn’t about share shift – which won’t happen, because major airlines quickly matched each other on this – it’s about modernizing the pricing model and getting rid of a tool that wasn’t relevant anymore, while at the same time making those non-basic economy fares more attractive to less price-sensitive buyers.

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American Airlines Surveying Whether To Replace Some Systemwide Upgrades With Other Benefits

by Gary Leff

first class seat
Sep 04 2020

American Airlines is surveying some top elites on how they might reorganize systemwide upgrades, the upgrades American’s top elites and million milers receive that can be used to secure a seat in a higher cabin than what you purchase any time after booking. They’re looking at how they might replace at least one of these upgrades with other rewards. Here’s what they seem to be testing, according to reports I’ve seen:

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Airlines That Block Middle Seats Are Furloughing Fewer Employees

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Delta, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue all limit the number of seats they’ll sell on a flight to varying degrees, promoting some on board social distancing. United, American, Spirit, and Allegiant do not.

Contra journalist Seth Kaplan, there’s no clear connection between blocking middle seats and a need to furlough airline employees. If anything there’s an effect in the opposite direction.

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Thai Airways Opens Restaurant So You Can Eat Plane Food On The Ground

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Back in June Thai Airways, unable to transport many passengers, pivoted into the prepared meals space offering food pre-orders for pickup at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports. Now they’ve taken their culinary aspirations and grown that into a new airport cafe.

The new restaurant just opened yesterday, and is decorated with real airplane seats, model airplanes, and “even an airstair at the entrance that would (probably) make you miss boarding their iconic purple planes.”

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One Airline Thinks Covid-19 Is The Perfect Time To Start Flying Boeing 747s Domestically

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2020

Barry Michaels has been trying to start an airline for at least 28 years. First under the name Family Airlines, and then Avatar Airlines, he’s had an idea to fly Boeing 747s between leisure destinations. He went to prison for tax and securities fraud raising money for the venture. The DOT insisted he give up control of the project.

Now he’s got a new pitch to investors: that now is the perfect time to start a new airline, because used 747s for domestic routes can be acquired cheap, and look at all those furloughed employees!

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