Category Archives for Airlines.
Fresh on the heels of naming a new Chief Customer Officer, American Airlines has named a new head of the AAdvantage frequent flyer program. Scott Long moves over from investor relations to become Senior Vice President of AAdvantage.
I had the chance to try BLADE helicopter transfers in New York for the first time, and it was very cool but it’s not perfect. There are two things that concern me.
I don’t believe any company, in any industry, has paid out more cash profit sharing in nominal terms than Delta (ever).
The man and his wife flew from Toronto to Vancouver in 2022. Their bags were lost. They didn’t get reasonable compensation, so they complained to the Canadian Transportation Agency who awarded them $2,079. After two years, the airline did not pay. Instead, they’ve filed suit against the couple. In fact, the passengers were served on Christmas Eve.
The American AAdvantage account activity page has been redesigned. Tiles are gone, and there’s a proper transactions list now and those transactions are sortable, searchable, and filterable.
The thing that struck me most about the cheese plate – aside from how sad it was – is that is consists of big chunks of cheese, crackers, grapes and a chocolate. But there is no plastic knife to slice the cheese. So you’re stuck taking big bites out of these cheese chunks. It is… awkward.
When I was first traveling for work, the first class cabin was mostly upgrades. And that meant it was frequent business travelers, who skewed middle aged and male. First class fares have come down a lot, there are plenty of upsells to leisure travelers, and as little as 13% of first class seats may be going to upgrades (Delta, but other airlines are catching up to them). The demographics of who is sitting up front have changed, but there are still remnants of the past.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both offer burgers as one of their domestic first class catering options. American Airlines is joining the burger bandwagon.
Sliders and fries are heated at the same temperature as the rest of American’s entree choices, for a period of 30 minutes. Condiments apparently do not accompany the meal tray but are available on request.
A couple of weeks ago I revealed exclusively that American Airlines CEO Robert Isom had pivoted to begin talking about a premium focus in the airline’s strategy. In employee remarks following the airline’s fourth quarter earnings call, Isom talked about attracting customers willing to pay more for better services.
He said that the airline is going to have a “rededication and a renewal to focus on the customer experience.” And he talked about this as “the next order of business, we’re going to organize around this.” And says “you’re going to hear some things very soon.” The start of this appears to be today’s news.
Airlines used to treat award travel customers better than customers on paid tickets. After all, passengers traveling on points had shown a lot of loyalty to get there. It was their reward, and the trip was something to be celebrated!
That’s not really true anymore, but until now only Delta has been willing to say so explicitly.
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 »
