Category Archives for Airlines.
Continental Airlines tried to take advantage of the uproar, committing to give members a window to take advantage of current rules if they ever tried to devalue.
The OnePass program, which covered Continental and Eastern, offered a “redemption guarantee.” If they ever increased the mileage price of awards.
A simple way to think about better breakfast is to think brunch. That opens up a whole new world of possibility beyond reheated scrambled eggs or omelettes, granola or oatmeal.
In the case of air travel it’s expected that flight crew have the same incentive as passengers – to get where they’re going safely. However there can be pressure to stay on time or get out ahead of bad weather, there can be a tendency to misjudge risks, and it’s crucial to make clear there’s a corporate culture of safety.
China Southern is taking that to the next level. They aren’t just saying ‘safety first’ and that employees won’t be punished for raising safety concerns that lead to delays, they are rewarding crew for raising safety issues.
Hong Kong Airlines was troubled long before protests erupted in the Chinese Special Administrative Region, keeping travelers away. Parent HNA Group was under strict orders to deleverage, with the government concerned about over $100 billion in debt.
HNA had problems paying for fuel. They had problems meeting interest obligations. They missed a $43 million debt payment last year and offered travel vouchers instead of cash to repay its investors.
Not only does Southwest offer ‘family boarding’ when you’re traveling with a child under 4 years old — boarding with elites who don’t have A group boarding passes — but if you are traveling with a lap infant and the flight isn’t 100% full you can almost always get an extra seat for your baby without having to buy them one.
Whenever there’s a flight delay I’ve been able to get agents – whether on the phone or in an Admirals Club – to get me rebooked. However being an Executive Platinum helps, having lounge access helps, and it can be difficult for many passengers to get through to an agent when flights go bad.
The airline has a tool to let customers rebook themselves onto new flights. It’s available on the website, using the airline’s mobile app, or at kiosks and launched two years ago. But when does the ability to rebook oneself onto a new flight become available?
KLM’s Amsterdam – Mexico City flight turned around back to Amsterdam when it had already made it to North America on Thursday, sending passengers back to where they started.
If I were a passenger on the flight I certainly wouldn’t second guess the judgment not to take risks. However I’d hope to land somewhere closer to where I was headed.
American Airlines has spent a lot of time moving around little green pieces of paper. Starting this month though the paper burden has been reduced.
Just as it’s important to remind industry watchers the role that frequent flyer programs play in driving airline profitability it’s important to realize that’s not in the numbers as well as what’s included – although I believe that in some measure the market actually prices these things in fairly already.
My own controversial belief, not fully supported by data, is that there’s a lot of ‘slop’ and misreported estimates in corporate accounting – entirely apart from and beyond the airline industry – and there are potential land mines hidden in plain sight all over the place because gaming of numbers and willful blindness are problems that replicate themselves across decisions throughout companies.
Southwest doesn’t want people automatically checking in 24 hours out, because it might cut into Early Bird check-in revenue. They don’t want people automatically checking price changes, because consumers might save money. They want self-service to be hard. And it’s both fine and reasonable to want those things. It’s neither fine nor reasonable for the government to subsidize those things by threatening innovators who want to use publicly available information.
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 »
