Category Archives for Airlines.
United’s President spoke yesterday at the Morgan Stanley 6th Annual Laguna Conference. It’s always interesting to listen to him, he lays out his thinking more clearly and candidly than most airline executives.
One thing pointed out is that “in the last 30 years airline revenue as a percentage or GDP has gone to about .6 from about 1.2%.” The conclusion he draws is that airfares should double, “we are under pricing our product by 50%.”
We thought US airlines were done complaining about competition when Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar settled complaints this year. But American is back at it — now complaining about a European airline that’s part-owned by a Gulf carrier.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker is worried about airline jobs when airline employment is at a peak and when his own flight attendants and mechanics unions are furious at him. Although it’s a well-worn strategy to blame foreigners as a distraction for problems at home. It’s even more ironic though because he did this in a speech where he also talked about inclusion.
Multiple readers reached out to me about delayed transfers of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer. They made transfers and those points did not post. This seems to be for transfers originating around September 4 onward.
American Airlines gave employees across the board raises without insisting that the pay changes be part of a contract. The airline says that’s made it harder to get mechanics to agree to a contract. American mechanics have already gotten much of the money they’re going to get with a new contract, so there’s less incentive for employees to agree to rules changes the airline wants.
American has asked for a federal mediator to get involved and wrap up a contract with mechanics. Here’s the airline’s letter to employees about the move:
The first Boeing 787-8 that American Airlines received is the first one to be receiving a premium economy retrofit, and will become the first one in the fleet with only 20 seats up front.
On September 4, American’s Boeing 787-8 registration number N800AN arrived at Chicago O’Hare from London Heathrow. Then it flew the next day to Everett, Washington’s Paine Field. And it’s been sitting in the Pacific Northwest ever since.
Brian Sumers interviewed Emirates CEO Tim Clark who revealed to him that the airline plans to launch a premium economy cabin.
He wants to make sure premium economy isn’t too nice because they don’t want it to be viewed as a ‘good enough’ alternative to pricier business class.
American boards earlier than the time they put on boarding passes for a couple of different aircraft types. This is a known issue at American, and one they’ve chosen not to spend on the IT to fix. It’s one reason you may show up at the designated boarding time and find your flight halfway boarded.
Four hundred British schools were evacuated in March and a United flight from London to San Francisco was quarantined because of a rash of bomb threats which a teenager admitted to making. He was also responsible for a denial of service attack on ProtonMail.
One passenger on United flight 949 shares his perspective on the incident, arriving in San Francisco and being take off the aircraft.
On or about August 25 Aeroplan, the frequent flyer program that was spun off from Air Canada that the airline is buying back, began having issues booking award tickets on several Star Alliance partner airlines.
I reached out to Aeroplan to find out why redemption on carriers such as Thai, Swiss, Air New Zealand, and LOT Polish has become unavailable.
The Chief Marketing Officer for Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines, who outlines plans for their new business class which will be introduced for Boeing 787 and Airbus A350s which will be entering the fleet, beginning with the 787s in 2019.
They’ll be moving from 2-2-2 seating to four-across direct aisle access. And since “High privacy is our priority,” there’s the possibility of suites with doors. However the seats are still under design.
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 »
