Category Archives for Airlines.
United’s CEO Munoz says they’ve reached the limit on how much they can shrink seats personally I already avoid flying United coach, and would choose JetBlue or Southwest domestically and many foreign airlines internationally.
Last Thursday Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly express confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX and said they had no plans to alter their order for new jets. Southwest has more 737 MAX aircraft on order than any other airline.
At least that’s how his remarks were broadly reported, when he actually hedged a bit more. Now we learn that members of their team have been off in Europe evaluating the Airbus A220.
You can buy more than one seat if you want extra space (ghetto premium economy or business class). The major US airlines let you do this in fact it’s one of the very best, least well known tricks in travel.
What’s surprising is how cheap it can be.
Cathay Pacific is now cracking down on flight attendants stealing from their aircraft and the list of items they’re interested in — from pens to ice cream — is surprising. Several flight attendants have been ‘caught red handed’ in searches of employees on arrival in Hong Kong.
Regular readers know that it’s almost always a good idea to pre-order your meal in American Airlines domestic first class, if you’re in the cabin at least 24 hours prior to departure. They have special meals you can order in addition to the two choices that’ll otherwise be on board. For lunch I’ll often take the kosher meal or the muslim meal (I do not like the kosher meal at breakfast).
Since launching a partnership with Zoës Kitchen American Airlines has introduced a pre-order charcuterie plate.
In November American Airlines revamped their first class meal lineup and included a cheeseburger option at lunch.
My initial reaction was that it looked very similar to United’s cheeseburger, right down to the Sir Kensington condiments, however it appeared to have a proper bun rather than United’s pretzel bun. On Tuesday I finally got to try the cheeseburger.
In a speech at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London British Airways CEO Alex Cruz declared that ‘the main threat to BA’s future’ is the airline’s employees.
He’s been forced to walk that back and clarify his remarks on an internal website,
There’s a real problem that programs are facing, how to deliver award seats in a world where planes are full and airlines aren’t growing faster than the economy? If there aren’t unsold seats on desirable flights the model breaks down. The answer though isn’t to move towards low value redemptions where a mile is worth a penny. That’s giving up.
Fortunately it’s not really an either-or proposition. In fact United’s own experience with revenue-based redemptions shows that this new model can easily co-exist with award charts.
Plenty of reporters will be covering the United Airlines first quarter earnings call, but largely focusing on the airline’s revenue performance and questions about the fleet – especially the 737 MAX.
My interest is largely focused on customer experience – product, fares, and the loyalty program – and that’s something that gets discussed but not nearly as widely picked up in the coverage. So these are the things that struck me as interesting during United’s earnings call.
Award space between the US and Tahiti is as tough to get as any route in the world.
Right now Air France business class has some availability for two passengers a few days each month. That’s better than I’ve seen it, whether searching in November or February or April.
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 »
