Category Archives for Airlines.
A week ago I covered a rumor that American Airlines is considering offering free inflight wifi. Now with additional confirmation from well-placed company sources I can report that the airline expects to offer onboard internet for free.
One consequence of American running a less reliable operation is passengers getting stranded. When the airline blames weather they aren’t responsible for costs like hotel rooms and meals. So airlines have a long history of being less than forthcoming about the true reasons behind operational problems.
This makes little sense from an American Airlines standpoint. The airline has largely walked away from the New York market and has only a limited presence in the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. It’s unclear why they’d want to reduce their relevance to Bay Area customers even further, as Delta builds up not just Seattle but a focus city in ex-American Airlines hub San Jose.
BA is introducing their first refurbished Boeing 777 with business class suites with doors October 27th flying London Heathrow – New York JFK, The Boeing 777 has first class, and will continue to in the new configuration.
However BA’s current first class seat is wholly uncompetitive. The current first class product has no doors for privacy, while the new business class will offer this.
One million miles is an achievement in its own right. The rapping crewmember here is awesome (so is the background dancer), and the passenger was given a bottle of champagne at the end. That’s in addition to the actual benefits of million miler status.
With negotiations being cancelled, with the company back in court, with mechanics under court order to perform and the FAA expressing heightened sensitivity, as with most things it all comes back to Patrick Swayze in Road House. It’ll get worse before it gets better.
Free internet underscores that the economics of bundling are when a the marginal cost of providing a product to an additional customer is near-zero, it makes more sense to charge for it as a package rather than separately. That’s how cable companies maximize revenue.
The mantra of ‘unbundling’ which has been accepted as gospel in the airline industry for the past decade doesn’t always make sense.
It’s a minor point in the ongoing saga between American Airlines and its mechanics, but just how one-sided does the judge in the case between American and its mechanics think the argument is over a work slowdown? How convinced is he by the evidence American Airlines put on? The judge signed the exact draft order that American Airlines wrote for him telling mechanics to get back to work.
An Amazon Prime Air cargo jet landed in Baltimore last night filled with Prime Day packages and began smoking.
The Atlas Air Boeing 767-300, flight 5Y3521, had come in from Riverside, California.
American AAdvantage used to have one of the most generous lifetime elite status programs, but three changes to the program have made it less valuable. Meanwhile Delta and United have improved their offerings over the years. Both airlines are now more generous with lifetime loyalty than American, and when a program is less generous than Delta that’s saying something.
One well-regarded source, however, suggests that the airline recognizes this and is considering solutions to improve lifetime status.
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 »
