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Passengers Got Sick and Flights Diverted on 2 American 777s This Week

by Gary Leff

Jan 30 2016

Wednesday’s American Airlines flight 109 from London to Los Angeles turned back while over Iceland when a couple of passengers and several flight attendants reported feeling lightheaded.

American returned to London where they have significant staff, mechanical, and crew resources rather than diverting to a closer airport — which bore out as the correct choice given that people on the flight were evaluated on the scene but did not require medical treatment. The cause of the incident remains unknown at this point.

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CEO of San Francisco-Based Virgin America Endorses Donald Trump

by Gary Leff

Jan 30 2016

Virgin America CEO Dave Cush was taken by surprise with the question, and he does try to walk his Donald Trump endorsement back some.

The Donald used to have a travel booking site (“The Art of the Travel Deal… There are plenty of other sites out there, but only GoTrump.com gets the best deals.”). He owned an airline and went bust. And he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

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American Opens the Floodgates on Transatlantic and Transpacific Premium Cabin Award Space

by Gary Leff

Jan 29 2016

American said to expect more premium cabin award availability, that there’s be more to come beyond what we’d already seen, and that it would be noticeable.

There’s a ton of flights with at least 4 business and 4 first class award seats available to a variety of destinations. And it is interesting that we are seeing this before premium cabin award prices go up on March 22 even!

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IHG Rewards Club Adds 2 New Redemption Categories, Most Expensive Night Now Up to 60,000 Points

by Gary Leff

Jan 29 2016

Last night I gave a heads up that IHG Rewards Club — the points program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands — would be adjusting the redemption prices at about 8% of participating hotels.

They’re giving a modest amount of advance notice — changes go into effect February 17. That lets you make any future date bookings now at the old price for hotels that are going up.

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How American is Thinking About What Really Matters to Customers

by Gary Leff

Jan 29 2016

The things that were most interesting to me about American’s earnings call weren’t falling airfares and weakness in South America market; the Zika virus; or American’s record profits, whether it’s fair to say that they had the most profits of any airline in history (or whether Delta ‘excluding employee profit sharing’ is higher, since of course those are wages and as Doug Parker pointed out the difference in profits between the airlines is Delta’s big losses on fuel hedging, something American doesn’t do).

The audience for the earnings call was mostly financial analysts. American was getting beaten up on, despite its profits and margins, for low fares. The critique was, why don’t they do more, actively manage to find ways to keep more of the cost savings from lower fuel? However there’s always some important tidbits that matter from a customer perspective, and to understand the direction the airline is going and what matters to its leadership. So here’s what was most interesting to me, that will be a different emphasis from mainstream financial reports on the call:

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