Category Archives for Airlines.
At the beginning of the week JetBlue increased checked bag fees to $30 for first bag. At the time I suggested that the larger US airlines were certainly looking at it, but that a major airline especially Delta needed to do it before we could say everyone would.
United turns out to be the large US airline to go first.
You might want to defect from United to American or from Delta to Alaska, but it’s pretty tough to do that and start from scratch with a new airline. You’re well treated as an elite, and it’s rough out there flying without any status (although bottom tier of status can be approximated in many cases with the airline’s co-branded credit card). It’s hard to move your business when you’re used to getting upgrades!
So airlines came up first with status matches. That can be helpful but – from the perspective of the loyalty program – it can also be abused.
Earlier in the month I wrote about how much money US frequent flyer programs have earned so far this year.
There’s no need to do back of the envelope with Qantas, in fact Qantas shares real numbers about its frequent flyer program. It’s not hard to extrapolate to the US market, or to pinpoint devaluation of existing points as well as reduction in points-earn.
Effective October 15 American Airlines will be closing its Admirals Clubs at Hartford (BDL), Greensboro (GSO), and Caracas (CCS).
The airline says they’re doing this to control costs, offering in a statement that “These decisions are never easy, and we must always ensure we are striking the right balance of providing the level of service our customers have come to expect while keeping our costs in-check.”
On September 1 American Airlines will be making a hard cutover to change three of their beers on board.
Personally I’m just glad American has increased the supply of Woodford Reserve in first class to six minis per first class liquor drawer, so they shouldn’t run out on most flights.
Over the last year JetBlue has made several moves to squeeze more revenue from customers. The airline has been eliminating its product advantages over competitors, and diminishing its customer-friendly approach. They still offer more legroom and their inflight internet generally works, but the legroom advantage is less than it used to be and the airline no longer offers a free checked bag to everyone.
Now JetBlue has made a move that its domestic rivals hadn’t yet — increasing the cost of a first checked bag to $30. And what everyone wants to know is, will other airlines match?
United Airlines President Scott Kirby, who has previously served as President of American Airlines (and US Airways and America West before that), is the most ‘by the numbers’ executive in the airline industry today. I’ve called him a destroyer of airlines.
However he’s just given an interview where he actually says that brand matters to an airline’s success in the long run and so more than what’s in the spreadsheet matters. Does the new rhetoric match reality?
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker has finally flown the airline’s new standard coach product, a full nine months after it has entered service.
American debuted a new domestic interior on their first Boeing 737 MAX back in November. That isn’t just the new product that is going on one plane (of which they have 100 on order). They’re taking all of their existing Boeing 737s and replacing the interior with new seats with less distance from seat back to seat back, that have less padding, and no seat back video.
American offered compensation so that the rebooking would be listed as voluntary rather than involuntary, not because DOT requirements were at play here at all.
The passenger agreed to give up their seat for compensation and American agreed to book the passenger onto the next available flight. Due to a delay the next available flight happened to be the original one.
Yesterday I helped someone with an Air China first class award. Air China certainly doesn’t have the best first class, and you might think it’s not worth the miles.
This is the story of an award booking that appeared to fail, but where perseverance got it ticketed. However there’s a better approach that takes some of the risk out of award booking.
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 »
