Category Archives for Airlines.
It’s nice to see Delta continuing to invest in their economy product, which after all is where most passengers sit. It may even be that their Boeing 777s, which still feature 9-abreast seating rather than squeezing in 10-across, offers the best international economy among U.S. or European carriers.
American Airlines introduced new domestic dinner entrees in November. What they’ve been doing is swapping out menus roughly every year.
Now they’ve revamped their menus again and are rolling out new meals July 10,
Passengers have suffered from increased delays and cancellations due to maintenance issues as tensions have flared.
Three items stand out from yesterday’s court hearing on the American Airlines lawsuit against the unions representing its mechanics, arguing that the Transportation Workers Union (legacy American) and the International Association of Machinists (legacy US Airways) have been engaged in an illegal job action meant to slow down the airline.
American Airlines is going to fly a Stand Up to Cancer-wrapped plane and anyone who contributes $25 or more can add a name to the wrapping that will go on the aircraft as a way of honoring a survivor of cancer, someone who is battling it now, or someone that has passed.
Make a donation of $25 or more to Stand Up To Cancer in July and add the name of someone you’d like to honor to an American Airlines Airbus A321.
While it doesn’t happen often, lithium ion batteries catch fire. The fire can usually be contained in the passenger cabin. It’s harder to deal with as cargo, which is why airlines don’t allow these sorts of batteries to travel in checked luggage.
As a result of this risk American Airlines now boards fire containment bags and heat resistant gloves on all of their aircraft.
Lower coach award prices are translating into greater redemptions for coach travel. That’s exactly what you’d expect. However it’s the changes in redemption patterns that are happening when prices have not (yet) changed that’s most revealing.
Continuing the theme that employees just need motivation rather than resources or tools to do a good job, American Airlines has “One Team, One Turn champions” who are managers “with the mission of underlining the direct correlation between on-time performance and customer experience.”
At Chicago that’s meant quizzing employees on the parking shuttle.
Frequent flyer program revenue – and in particular the sale of miles to banks – is the biggest driver of US airline profitability. However United’s MileagePlus is stagnating. Their revenue growth can be accounting for entirely by points transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards. As Chase Sapphire Reserve gained popularity that meant more points earned which could be transferred to United.
British Airways has quietly launched new extra business class award availability between North America and the UK for additional miles. US airlines generally offer all or most seats on their flights for additional miles, it used to be roughly double miles but now is often much more especially in premium cabins.
BA, which normally offers double miles awards to ‘Gold Guest List’ elites, is offering this for less than double miles.
The stock symbol ‘UAL’ represents “United Continental Holdings Inc” which is the parent company of United Airlines as well as businesses like Air Micronesia, Century Casualty Company, and Covia LLC which is itself the parent of Mileage Plus Holdings, Mileage Plus Marketing, and Mileage Plus.
United Airlines, United Technologies and Boeing were all once the same company, broken apart by the federal government in the mid-1930s.
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 »
