Category Archives for Airlines.
August 14 Singapore Airlines made a huge change to the ability to waitlist for award tickets. All wait list requests are cancelled 14 days prior to travel. There are no more last minute wait lists.
Singapore says the new rules ‘promote certainty’ and that’s certainly true. You know you cannot clear a wait list close to departure, because Singapore won’t allow it.
But why did they make this change?
In the second quarter American Airlines wrote down the value of its investment in China Southern airlines. In response to a question about financials, the airline told employees “Non-operating special items principally included $52 million of mark-to-market net unrealized losses primarily associated with the company’s equity investment in China Southern Airlines.” $52 million would equate to 26% of the original $200 million investment in China Southern made just two years earlier.
The airline is beloved, though much of the credit they get is based on past efforts. JetBlue isn’t nearly as good as it once was, they even led last year’s checked bag fee increase. They’ve squeezed seats, just not as much as American, Delta, and United. And their Achilles heel is operational reliability,
Six new cost cuts continue the multi-year quest to become merely ‘a little less bad’ than competitors continues apace.
Yesterday I shared a leaked Delta memo showing that the airline would be giving 4% raises to flight attendants and ground employees. In addition the airline said employees could expect bigger bonuses. That’s big news this Labor Day weekend.
The authenticity of the memo was being called into question in some quarters because another (obviously fake) memo was circulating earlier in the week promising 9% raises. However the real memo is.. real… and Delta employees get news of a 4% raise for Labor Day.
Currently American Airlines changes up their domestic first class snack baskets every six months. I don’t love most of what they offer, and boy the contents get boring after awhile. The last changeover was April 10.
While I don’t think the new choices starting October 9 are better the good news is that the airline will begin rotating out contents every two months beginning with this next refresh. Here’s what’ll be in the new baskets.
Ground and flight attendant employees get a 4% raise. Employees who receive merit-based pay adjustments will have a 4% increase in the total compensation pool available to them. And bonuses are expected to be higher, too.
Just as importantly the airline communicates that it is investing in solving pain points in jobs, and employees are reminded that they’re empowered to address the most important issues at the airline (safety). It’s a well-written memo.
Delta and Alaska Airlines commit to delivering checked bags within 20 minutes of each flight arriving. United and American make no such commitment. An American employee asked about what the airline can do to improve its baggage delivery times, and management provided a response in writing outlining some of the challenges that they have with bags – and how it’s supposed to work.
They also explained why bags often don’t make it when you change flights during irregular operations.
One of the challenges with Delta’s buildup in the Seattle market has been the city’s intense loyalty to their hometown airline. “Alaska Airlines” is a strange name for a carrier based in Seattle but Seattleites feel a strong affinity for the company.
Delta has done a lot to move the needle, beyond schedule and price. Like Alaska they offer a 20 minute baggage delivery guarantee. The Seattle airport Sky Club is one of their best. And there have been semi-frequent mileage offers targeted at the local market.
At an employee town hall last week American Airlines Vice President of Planning Vasu Raja reported that as they put the Boeing 767 on more domestic routes it’s doing well — because it offers a better first class than most of their domestic flights.
This summer American Airlines gained access to 15 new gates in terminal E satellite at Dallas Fort-Worth airport. That’s the biggest change that allowed them to grow from 800 flights a day to 900 flights. They had to make huge changes to their operation to accommodate this growth.
For one day though the airline is going to grow to 1000 departures at Dallas Fort-Worth.
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 »
