Category Archives for Airlines.
Midwest Airlines, Frontier, and AirTran all tried to hub in Milwaukee. Today, no one does. There are some cities that have been tried and don’t quite work as hubs. America West used to hub in Columbus, for instance.
Old airline brands never seem to die. There’s another attempt to bring back Eastern Airlines. An airline using the People Express name operated again for a few months in 2014. And Pan Am is a name that just won’t go away.
Paul Jacobson, Delta’s Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer presented at today’s Deutsche Bank 2018 Global Industrials and Materials Summit.
He laid the airline’s improvement in Net Promoter Score (willingness of its customers to recommend) with growth in its revenue premium — how much extra customers are willing to pay to fly Delta over its competitors.
Passengers on a delayed Spirit Airlines flight departing Chicago O’Hare last month — sitting on the ground with inoperative air conditioning, presumably no working auxiliary power unit, “babies are crying, everyone is moody” — were treated to a flight attendant dropping some serious life advice.
He asks passengers to share their codine, lithium, quaaludes, and other drugs with their seat opponent — but if it’s a child sitting next to them “do a moral inventory, or just do like my mom used to, she broke it in half and gave it to me.”
United sent me a package highlighting some of their product updates. Here’s what was inside.
Last year Qatar’s CEO said that on “crap American carriers” you’ll “always be served by grandmothers.”
He’s the new Chairman of IATA, the International Air Transport Association which represents over 275 airlines in more than 110 countries. And he didn’t waste much time causing controversy with his (offensive) remarks — immediately after vowing not to.
Customers flew throughout 2017 for their elite benefits this year. They’ve been flying all this year on the promise of benefits they’d have for the remainder of the year (if a higher status) and next year. That’s why it’s terrible when a program takes away elite benefits during the program year.
American Airlines even sells elite status renewals. AAdvantage Gold, for instance, can sell for $699.
Etihad has been pulling back from the U.S., just as they’ve been pulling back from investments in foreign airlines. They decided to stem their losses in air berlin and Alitalia. They’ve cut routes around the world as their appetite for growth at the expense of their balance sheet has subsided.
They eliminated their Dallas Fort-Worth flight after American severed its codesharing relationship. They eliminated their San Francisco flight after Air India starting San Francisco – Delhi.
American Airlines flight AA1897 from San Antonion to Phoenix ran into strong storms over New Mexico. It was pummeled by hail.
The Airbus A319 with 130 passengers onboard had its nose cone smashed and windshield cracked. One of the pilots couldn’t see out. But they managed to get the plane on the ground safely in El Paso last night.
Cathay Pacific will be rotating vintage champagnes in first class each month throughout the whole route network. This month will be 2004 Krug.
And they’re bringing back the predeparture amuse bouche for a three month trial on Hong Kong to Chicago, Boston, and New York JFK flights.
oneworld has three elite tiers. Star Alliance and SkyTeam have two. Star Alliance says they’re considering a third, a new top tier. But they aren’t saying what that would look like but it probably would involve devaluation of Gold.
Star Alliance also wants to introduce ‘dynamic redemption’ in other words revenue-based ‘miles and money’ across the alliance, spending points from one program as cash to buy a seat on another.
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 »
