Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

American Airlines Tests Effectively Killing Basic Economy

by Gary Leff

Nov 21 2019

American is testing what happens when they eliminate the biggest remaining restriction on Basic Economy fares, the inability to select seats at time of booking.

If American does this they’ll pick up more seat selection revenue, fewer customers will be chased away, but much of the encouragement to buy a more expensive coach fare will be lost. Presumably this test allows American to see which factors are greatest – to see whether Basic Economy is really costing them money as currently conceived.

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LATAM Leaving oneworld October 1, 2020

by Gary Leff

plane on tarmac
Nov 21 2019

One of the most frequent questions I’ve gotten over the past couple of months is from American AAdvantage members with tickets for travel on LATAM, wondering whether they’ll be able to credit the flights to their AAdvantage accounts and earn miles. It looks like the ability to do so will continue through September 2020, based on new information about when LATAM will leave the oneworld alliance.

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American Airlines Launches New James Beard Foundation Partnership

by Gary Leff

Nov 19 2019

Paying a name chef to associate with the airline meals is a way to announce the airline cares about its food. And if consumers believe the name chef cares about their reputation at all, they won’t put their name on the food unless it meets certain standards. It’s also not very expensive for an airline to rent the chef’s name relative to the total cost of the meals provided.

A celebrity chef doesn’t guarantee a good meal, in fact if a chef is putting their names on an airline meal you should downgrade your estimation of the chef. It means they’re more interested in the revenue stream from branding than maintaining quality for the simple reason that they cannot possibly replicate the restaurant quality of their means in the air, heated in an airplane galley, and plated by US airline flight attendants.

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Airline CEO Wants Government to Ban Business Class for the Public Good

by Gary Leff

Nov 16 2019

Every business can do this, cloak their self-interested lobbying in the mantle of benefit for a broader public good. Indeed, most businesses who seek to profit by political rather than economic means do this today. It’s just exceptionally common in the airline industry, where government corruption has run rife on consumer interests for a hundred years.

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