Category Archives for Airlines.
This would allow Air Canada to start with all of Aeroplan’s members, instead of starting from scratch. It would take the pressure off of Air Canada to offer as rich a value proposition to members in order to compete with Aeroplan.
There’s a certain irony to spinning off the program, realizing income, driving down the value of that program and then acquiring it on the cheap.
It’s been over 3 years since I wrote about American’s ‘Goldilocks Problem’ boarding planes too early (before stated boarding time on boarding passes) and updating customers about delays too late.
I find that American won’t post flight delays until boarding time for an aircraft, even when those delays are blindingly obvious. And they won’t update delays until revised departure times have passed. Even when fuel is spilling onto the tarmac.
Former American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall thinks that the airline industry should never have been deregulated (1978) and the recent round of airline mergers (2008-2013) should never have been allowed.
Crandall is wrong on both counts.
American’s CEO Doug Parker and Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian agreed to sit in coach in the back of a Boeing 777-200 and talk about their coach products.
Loyalty programs are having a hard time delivering cherished upgrades to elites, they’re monetizing premium cabins more than ever before, so what does the future look like for the all-important recognition component of airline elite status?
American Airlines is surveying elites with these questions to help them decide.
Delta is running an award sale they seem to have changed from offering a set of routes at a discount each month to each week.
Salt Lake City – Tampa is a deal or discount at ‘just’ 26,000 miles roundtrip. So much for the 25,000 mile award.
premium business for American airlines is increasingly centered around LA rather than New York, which is what happens when you scale back in what’s perhaps the most important air market in the world.
The airline’s Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja suggests they don’t have a lot more opportunity today for extra premium domestic flying any plans for lie flat 757s domestically notwithstanding.
If passengers hadn’t recorded video of Dr. David Dao being dragged off a United flight, and also of his bloody return, do you think United would have ever changed its story from ‘apologizing for having to re-accommodate passengers’ to declaring the events truly horrific?
The widespread use of cell phone video has become important to document events and create proof when bad things happen.
Airlines could schedule longer ground time for aircraft, but that’s expensive. I’m not sure that’s how I’d most want them to invest in passenger experience since it would ultimately mean buying more planes for the same flight schedule. Ultimately I’m just glad they clean the planes at all.
A week ago I wrote about American’s super gross ‘barbecue chicken sandwich’ that they sell in coach. I suggested that for an airline based in Texas this is doubly embarrassing since it doesn’t even constitute barbecue.
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 »
