Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees this week that his airline will soon copy others (such as United) that are requiring passengers to complete health screening questions as part of the check-in process, to keep people with COVID-19 off of planes.
Doug Parker has shared with unions this week that American Airlines expects to be a 10%-20% smaller airline in summer 2021 than before the coronavirus pandemic. In the fall they’ll have 20% – 30% too many people on staff, and they’ll have to reduce the flight attendant work group based on that number – while retaining pilots based on where they plan to be by mid-2021.
Before the global pandemic, Apple was United’s largest corporate customer spending $150 million with the airline. Unsurprisingly United’s San Francisco hub captures a large amount of Northern California tech business, and Apple is one of the biggest spenders on travel.
With significant suppliers and manufacturing in China, Apple had been booking one quarter of total company spend on just the San Francisco – Shanghai route, a total of 50 business class seats a day.
Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue are limiting the number of seats they sell on each flight so there’s no need for passengers to occupy middle seats. Sometimes middle seats will be taken, but that usually means families traveling together. American Airlines has been limiting loads about half as much as others – but that ends July 1.
United Airlines, in contrast, has been happy to sell a ticket for any seat on any flight and fill all the middles throughout the COVID crisis. Starting July 1 even more of those middle seats will be filled.
Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue are limiting the number of seats they sell on each flight so there’s no need for passengers to occupy middle seats.
American Airlines does not. They cap capacity, but still sell enough seats so about half of middles might be occupied. American’s much lesser restriction will end July 1.
A passenger noticed an American Airlines employee at Washington National airport offering a prayer over the PA system at one of the gates and videotaped it. They sent it to a friend who shared it to twitter with outrage. Although I don’t really see anything wrong with offering a prayer right now, it may even bring some comfort during difficult times.
The heads of 6 major airline unions wrote to Congressional leadership asking for another 6 months of airline payroll – $32 billion for passenger and cargo airlines and airline contractors – to prevent employee layoffs through March 31.
This is a bad idea.
Turkish Airlines has 4 or more business class award seats available most dates next year, January – May 2021, from a variety of U.S. gateways. You can claim these seats using miles from a variety of different Star Alliance carriers, and connect onward to Eastern Europe, Mideast, Southeast Asia or Africa.
United is also offering wide open business class award space on several transatlantic routes.
American Airlines has a small business program, Business Extra, that gives points to businesses when their employees travel on the airline. This is separate from, and in addition to, the AAdvantage miles that travelers earn themselves.
The airline announced today that they are giving up to 1 million Business Extra points to minority-owned small businesses and also non-profits.
In the aftermath of the May 22 crash of a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Lahore to Karachi a preliminary investigation attributed the cause to pilot error and lack of professionalism. Cockpit crew talked throughout the journey about COVID-19 and its affect on their families, while ignoring standard operating procedures. 97 of the 99 passengers and crew on board were killed.
The investigation further revealed that more than 30% of pilots at the airlines have fake licenses and aren’t qualified to fly.
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 »
