Category Archives for Airlines.
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.
United Airlines has just announced that MileagePlus miles no longer expire.
MileagePlus has also eliminated award charts. The two changes viewed together redistribute United’s spending from frequent customers to infrequent ones.
One of the major issues of contention between American Airlines and its mechanics – that has prevented reaching a contract agreement and contributed to the airline’s poor operational performance – is outsourcing. American outsources less work than other U.S. airlines.
However the trend is for high value work to be done in house, and lower value work to be outsourced. That’s a trend that union mechanics aren’t going to be able to escape. Legacy American Airlines mechanics are in their mid-50s on average and are being promised job and base protection, so the fight is really about future workers.
Vice President of Customer Planning Jill Surdek addressed the interiors of their A321T aircraft in an employee question and answer session last week.
Between the poor operational performance American Airlines has suffered this summer, the airline’s cramming more seats into coach and surly service, the carrier’s employees have a frequent need to apologize to customers.
Though Prince Harry and Megan Markle came under fire recently for flying private they’re also known to fly commercial, and even flew coach for a New Year’s getaway. Sitting in the very back of an aircraft may be the best position where there are security concerns.
Prince Harry is also known to fly British Airways intra-European business class which is like flying coach. His grandfather Prince Philip, however, once remarked that air travel can be quite nice “provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.”
Is American Airlines international first class worth it? There’s no suites with doors. There’s no fine dining compared to peers selling international first class. The benefit surely comes from the service, right?
A Delhi man called police to let them know a woman was carrying a bomb and planned to use it on a flight bound for either Dubai or Saudi Arabia. All international flights were temporarily suspended at India’s busiest airport.
So far London Heathrow airport workers have postponed their planned August strikes, so British Airways customers next expect disruption from a pilots strike. British Airways pilots have announced strike plans for September 9, 10 and 27.
Here’s what happens next for passengers, and here’s why pilots are striking.
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 »
