Category Archives for Airlines.
Southwest Airlines is being sued for “failure to protect a minor” from an inflight sex assault. There are terrible passengers out there, who do terrible things.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 came within 150 feet of the water while still 3 miles out from Tampa airport. Flight 425 from Columbus diverted to Fort Lauderdale.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has updated its members, sharing that they’ve reached a tentative agreement with American Airlines. Knowing that they were negotiating this week in Phoenix, not D.C. and without the involvement of federal mediators, it was clear that they were close to a deal and simply had to finish up details.
This allows American to trumpet putting labor unrest and substantial risk behind them heading into their second quarter earnings call on Thursday of next week.
A reader flying American Airlines from Nice to Philadelphia boarded their aircraft to find that the tray table at their economy seat 13K was broken, “Broken tray in seat 13K not ideal for an eight hour flight with a 6 year old.”
The JetBlue flight attendants union let crewmembers know on Thursday that the airline was planning to need fewer flight attendants starting in September as a result of schedule reducations, and that this would last at least through the winter season. Specifically they estimated that 39,000 flight attendant hours would be dropped from the schedule. As a result they’re offering leaves of absence of up to six months.
Initially the flight delay was due to maintenance. A passenger reports that it was a “door issue.” Mechanics responded, and it appears that maintenance determined they could defer fixing the issue. The captain, though, told passengers he wouldn’t fly the plane in that condition.
Domestic first class will reportedly be called “Mini Mint” and be introduced in 2026. It’s currently expected that they will use the Collins Aerospace MiQ seat. They won’t reduce total seats on planes, so they’ll squeeze legroom from coach to make room for first class.
Twenty years ago Alaska Airlines seriously considered eliminating first class altogether, but determined that they could better monetize the product instead. Now they’re betting more heavily on premium.
They don’t have lie flat seats even for cross country flights, and they eliminated Virgin America’s superior first class product after the merger, but they’re planning to add a row of first class to Boeing 737-800s and add a row of extra legroom coach (“premium class”) to their 737-900ER and 737 MAX 9s.
Former American Airlines Chairman Doug Parker shared how he championed his airline’s cause using the federal government to try to take out a small competitor. In March he went on the Airlines Confidential podcast and shared that a year earlier he and Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson button-holed David Pekoske, asking him to stop allowing JSX from operating out of private terminals without TSA screeners.
American Airlines let go Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja, architect of their strategy of chasing award managed business travel. His thesis had been that they were going to fill their planes, and didn’t need to offer companies discounts. They’d make more money, and do so at a lower cost – without the sales teams and special customer service to service those accounts.
Now they’re backtracking on this strategy.
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 »
