Category Archives for Airlines.
My former award booking partner Steve (some of you know him as “beaubo” on Flyertalk) literally wrote the book on 30 years of leveraging the biggest miles and points exploits.
One lesson he always reminds me is that if it’s a good deal, you should think about how it might scale.
Here are the 100 busiest airline routes without non-stop service today, and what passengers are paying to connect for each one.
Even if you don’t fly the two airlines, Frontier plus Spirit means a stronger airline flying more planes under an ultra low cost carrier model. That’s capacity charging lower fares driving down the prices that United, American and Delta can charge.
Priority check-in lines are generally for people traveling in a premium class of service. At some airlines this can even mean premium economy. It’s also for an airline’s frequent flyers who hold eligible status. And it can even be for a credit card customer.
The person minding the line, though, generally has no idea whether you’re eligible or not. They’ll ask you if you’re eligible, and if you say yes you can wait in line.
It’s been expected that Cathay Pacific will call its new first class on the Boeing 777-9 “Halo Suites.” We’ve only seen concepts they were playing with for it. It’s delayed, because the 777-9 is delayed now by at least six years, to 2026.
But the commitment Cathey has to the product is extreme, delaying retrofits of Boeing 777s to retain first class until the new product is available, and the airline’s chairman believes when they reveal what is next it will be unrivaled.
On September 25, 2024, American Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Envoy Air was operating flight 3936 from Norfolk to Chicago O’Hare and touched down on a parallel runway different from its assigned path. The aircraft, with 68 passengers and crew members onboard, landed on runway 10L instead of the designated runway 10C.
Everyone is taking Elliott seriously, noting correctly that the airline has underperformed and failed to maximize its assets, and suggesting that current management doesn’t deserve to stay and execute on its own turnaround plan – without every questioning the seriousness or sincerity of Elliott’s own plan. But all you have to do is watch a famous old movie to get up to speed quickly.
Early in Doug Parker’s tenure the company’s market cap reached $37 billion. It’s now just over $8 billion. At the airline’s Media and Investor Day in 2017, the CEO famously declared that they would ‘never lose money again.’ Whereas their major competitors’ stock has returned to trading at pre-pandemic levels, American’s returned to its pre-pandemic decline.
Under the contact form to submit an inquiry to American, when you choose AAdvantage account service, you can now select ‘status match’.
I’m genuinely struck by the shift in United Airlines CEO Scoott Kirby since taking the reins at that airline. He was President of US Airways and American Airlines under Doug Parker, and known as a straight spreadsheet guy. At US Airways he wouldn’t even add inflight wifi until he could actually see customers booking away from the airline because they didn’t have it.
United is still careful with cost, and their new premium image often outstrips the reality of the product and experience, but they make investments in customer experience others aren’t making and take risks for payoffs that will be harder to quantify. And it’s working out for the airline.
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 »
