Category Archives for Airlines.
Delta is adding another flight to Austin that seemingly makes no sense. They’re going to fly to Harlingen, Texas with a once-daily SkyWest regional jet. It’s a 45 minute drive from McAllen, Texas where they’re also flying three times a day.
Basic economy matters as a way to differentiate corporate travelers (who generally pay more) from leisure customers (who are price sensitive). The old methods of Saturday night stay and 14-day advance purchase no longer hold.
But customers aren’t as stupid as airlines assume, or maybe even used to be. They compare the offerings of airlines – at the same price, nearly everyone offered better value than JetBlue. Certainly Delta – which has free wifi, too – offered better value in both New York and Boston than JetBlue’s basic fares. That hurts JetBlue, which wins only when customers go out of their way to choose them over competitors.
Increasingly, airline customers have been willing to spend more money for a better experience. It used to be that people booked on schedule and price and were willing to take whatever they had to in order to get where they’re going as long as things operated reasonably on time. That’s no longer the case, yet even premium airline products haven’t adapted, at least domestically.
Air New Zealand’s CEO Greg Foran may have violated his flight attendant union contract scope clause by taking over cabin crew duties to serve drinks to passengers on a flight from Auckland to Tokyo. (I kid, I kid.)
He was trying to make up for having the flight diverted – to pick him up, along with a New Zealand trade delegation of 30 business leaders, government officials, and media.
Pro-Trump activist and former Libertarian Heather Mullins complained about her treatment flying American Airlines first class, reporting that a flight attendant skipped over her when taking drink orders because of her MAGA hat.
Last summer, the FAA outlined an intention to ban JSX and other scheduled public charter operators, largely because they offer a popular, quality product that competitors do not like.
Now the FAA says that it will move forward with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would – at least in some cases – prevent public charter operators from selling scheduled flights from private terminals, using co-pilots with fewer than 1,500 flying hours.
For the past 9 years, logging into an American AAdvantage account has required entering an account number, password, and last name. In the past few days, American dropped the requirement to type your last name in order to access your AAdvantage account.
Prior to the pandemic Qatar Airways was looking at taking a 49% stake in RwandAir after already having invested in and taken control of the new Kigali airport. The plan was to improve RwandAir’s systems and quality, and bring them into oneworld although it was not clear at the time whether the airline would become a full or ‘connect’ member of the alliance.
After nearly five years of discussions, punctuated by the pandemic, Qatar Airways finally looks ready to take the stake in RwandAir this summer.
There was a push three years ago to have the federal government ban airlines serving alcohol on planes. It didn’t go anywhere, but a new study has thrust this back onto the agenda.
Delta is growing their ‘we don’t actually care’ Austin presence even more: daily SkyWest regional jet Austin – Harlingen service starting in October.
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 »
