Category Archives for Airlines.
There’s a theme developing at United: all your money belongs to us. Customers exist to serve the airline, the airline doesn’t exist to serve customers. From refusing refunds to customers even when flights don’t operate the same day, to telling customers they’ll still have to spend as much money on the airline this year if they want elite benefits next year the message is clear: loyalty is one way.
Sara Nelson is President of the AFA-CWA, flight attendants union with 50,000 members and part of the national Communications Workers of America. She’s an activist in the left wing of the Democratic Party, a Bernie Sanders supporter, and has been called ‘the most powerful flight attendant in America’ as a rising star in the labor movement.
United is already taking significant steps to reduce spending in the face of coronavirus. They’ve instituted a hiring freeze, they’re delaying raises for non-union employees, and they’re reducing their flight schedules.
Now they’re refusing to give customers refunds even if they change schedules so the flights you buy operate on a different day.
Like Delta (Sky Bonus) and United (Perks Plus), American Airlines has a small business program. It’s designed for companies that aren’t going to have corporate-level agreements with an airline that come with discounts or rebates. Instead they offer points redeemable for travel and services from the airline.
The good news is that even some of the smallest businesses can join and can ‘double dip’. The traveler earns frequent flyer miles as usual, and the company earns points in the separate Business ExtrAA program on top.
It’s important for an airline or hotel chain to be able to use the loyalty program to goose travel, rather than just giving away the store without travel. So how do we understand status extensions, versus taking a wait and see approach and maybe using a double qualifying offer later in the year?
Self-serve snacks go away, recycling is being reduced, and passengers aren’t going to be putting their virus-laden hands in the bread basket or the snack basket. The reminder here that alcohol in mini bottles is not a disinfectant apparently needed to be said? If it’s less than 60% alcohol it’s not going to help. American Airlines doesn’t serve Everclear.
Keep planning trips, there will be great deals – far better than what we’ve seen so far – but don’t make non-refundable plans. Frequent flyer redemptions are usually the most changeable. Coronavirus and the economy are going to get worse. Some airlines will fail, and others may merge. It’s wise to begin preparing.
At the end of the day the most important thing is to keep living life, while being flexible to adapt to new information.
Different airlines and hotel chains are taking different approaches to the coronavirus – not just to the falloff in travel, but to making sure traveling with them is a safe experience for their guests. I reached out to several airlines and hotel companies to ask about changes to their cleaning practices in response to the virus. I was surprised by how varied the responses were.
I’m much more likely to have confidence in the airlines and hotel chains that signal they are taking the spread of coronavirus most seriously.
When American Airlines announced their renewed partnership with Qatar Airways – re-introducing codesharing, which they terminated in 2017, and potentially flying to Doha – I speculated that this might mean an end to American’s partnership with Etihad.
One of the best tools in travel years ago was Travelocity Dream Maps. You’d plug in the city you were starting from, and how much you were willing to spend, and it would give you a map of all the places you could go for that amount or less. The tool was decommissioned about a decade ago, but American Airlines has an award map that is similar for miles.
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 »
