Category Archives for Airlines.
Southwest Airlines is customer-friendly in many ways, from no change fees to not hitting customers with checked bag fees. Their employees are friendly and actually seem to like their jobs.
There’s really just one part of the company that seems to hate people, and that’s legal. They’ve been more aggressive than most airlines in going after websites that pull data from Southwest.com and make it more useful to customers.
In September 2014 American and legacy US Airways harmonized their catering — and the results were not good. American took the overwhelming feedback of customers — and from embarrassed crew — to heart and introduced better meals in August 2015.
American ostensibly introduces all new meal service each year. We got a new set of meals in November 2016, and last month they began to rotate new dishes in as they overhaul the domestic first class menu.
Two weeks ago I wrote that British Airways is introducing seats with 29 inches of pitch and no recline. That’s an inch less space than Ryanair offers from seat back to seat back.
Since word of BA’s new seats without recline came out the buzz word has been that they’re pre-reclined, a phrase I first heard from former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza. It’s a silly statement, but it’s also true that their seats aren’t completely upright.
The idea of compensating customers onboard is hardly new. You can contact customer relations after a flight, you can even get a proactive email from an airline after a flight, but the immediacy of onboard compensation can quell problems while you’re still stuck in a metal tube and frustrated.
American Airlines is rolling out this capability next month, loading iSolve software onto flight attendant tablets.
American Airlines status challenges cost money to sign up for and include a minimum spend requirement although the airline also occasionally will directly status match a United or Delta top tier elite member.
In a rare instance of Delta following American (although to be fair Delta was first with minimum spend for elite status) their elite status challenge program requires minimum spend not just minimum travel. And there’s on other change as well.
There are a number of minor service changes that EVA Air is making. But the fact that they’re paying attention to the minor details like this is part of what makes them a quality carrier. They offer one of the better business class products in the world, and good service throughout the cabin.
There’s new pajamas and even menu covers in business class, new bedding in premium economy, and even gourmet snacks in coach on Hong Kong flights.
Air India knows its inflight entertainment offerings lag the industry. They also know that long haul business class loads hover around 50%. So they’re considering giving out laptops to business class passengers.
Myrna Herzog flew Rio to Tel Aviv via Rome on Alitalia on January second, arriving on the third. She checked a 17th century Lewis viola da gamba reportedly worth $200,000.
That strikes me as a dumb move, however she says Alitalia had “promise[d] that the instrument would be only handled BY HAND.” Of course it arrived in Tel Aviv looking, in her words, like “it was savagely vandalized, ..it seems that a car ran over it.”
China is always ‘the next big thing.’ That was true 10 years ago and it seems like it will be true 10 years from now.
Airlines are betting big on China, since the U.S. and China don’t have Open Skies airlines have to fight for the best routes and then squat on them hoping they’ll be more valuable in the future. In a sense it’s like Havana service but with bigger stakes.
Last year there was a report that Emirates and Etihad were considering merging. Then in the fall Emirates CEO Tim Clark said he was open to working with Etihad, and offered a non-denial denial about a likely merger.
Now there’s a new modest agreement the two airlines have entered into — signed by their CEOs.
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 »
