Category Archives for Airlines.
At the end of 2015 Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program said they were working on changes that would make them more like Delta SkyMiles in order to preserve “the program’s economic balance.” That’s never what customers want to hear.
Flying Blue matters to you because they’re a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, and Citibank. And because Air France availability is much better using Flying Blue miles than with points from partners.
American Airlines began the race to charge checked bag fees. First it was a second checked bag fee, then fee for the first. It became industry standard with Southwest remaining as the outlier.
With passengers charged for overhead bin space they began carrying more onto the plane. With planes largely full for the past several years there hasn’t been enough bin space to accommodate everyone, leaving the last passengers to board having to gate check their bags usually meaning that they must collect those bags at baggage claim.
On flights where some passengers have to gate check bags it won’t be those who pay extra to board early and queue up in group two. It will be those who don’t pay the $9.
American is investing in the domestic fleet, adding seat power and bigger overhead bins and high speed internet even as they’re cramming in more seats. AAdvantage has been devalued, but so have most of their competitor frequent flyer programs. There are a lot of things that the airline really has going for itself. There are fantastic assets and improvements that shouldn’t be overlooked, and should even be celebrated.
United Airlines prevailed in a federal class action case over its decision to eliminate the Silver Wings senior citizen discount program in which they had sold lifetime memberships.
The program was founded in 1986 for customers 55 years and older. In 1996 the program is said to have had 560,000 members. They continued to add lifetime members through 2005, costing at that time ~ $250. The program was terminated (‘closed to new members and renewals’) in 2007.
Right now there’s as many as four first class award seats on Cathay Pacific, New York JFK – Hong Kong — although it can be cumbersome to see and book the space.
A year ago Delta announced they would serve meals in coach in 12 markets. In response American announced meals in coach.. for New York JFK – Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Other airlines offer lie flat seats competing again American’s standard first class domestic seats. American believes they have the better service. Here’s why.
Let’s look at what American Airlines thinks about its loyalty program. In written Q&A with employees, who listen to customer complaints about AAdvantage devaluation, here’s how American responds:
Wednesday night’s American Airlines flight AA930 from Sao Paulo to Miami delayed 27 hours after the Boeing 777-300ER’s captain assaulted an American Airlines ground agent and was arrested.
On Monday United Airlines President Scott Kirby announced that they would pause the plan to replace quarterly bonuses with a much less expensive lottery program.
Last Friday they had come up with the lottery that would save the carrier perhaps $30 million per year, replacing bonuses of up to $300 per quarter per employee with big prizes given to just 1-2% of employees. And the backlash was brutal.
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 »
