When I first started flying United regularly in the mid-1990s, all elites had a benefit known as middle seat blocking. When an elite frequent flyer picked a window or aisle seat in coach (in a row that was at least 3-across), the middle seat next to them would be blocked.
As airlines have empty seats, and customers place a premium on social distancing the offer of space available empty middle seat could drive real share shift.
Airlines will be able to lean on their loyalty programs both for short term cash, and to put butts back into airline seats as soon as fear subsides.
They have a history of turning to their loyalty programs as cash cows – either spinning off the business or pre-selling 9- and 10-figure dollar amounts worth of miles to their co-brand credit card issuing banks. They can sell miles at a discount now to passengers who will redeem them later. And there’s never been a more effective marketing vehicle than the frequent flyer program for influencing consumer behavior, just as soon as behavior can be influenced again.
Customers whose events are cancelling are getting travel credits, often without change fees, from major airlines. While hotels are waiving cancellation penalties and refunding non-refundable bookings, airlines are not.
For a leisure traveler perhaps they’ll use a travel credit for another trip in the future. In most cases they’ve got 12 months from original date of purchase (not date of the trip) to use the credit. For managed business travelers their company may be paying for the booking directly, and is on the hook for trips not taken. But what about unmanaged business travelers who submit receipts for reimbursement after a trip?
Minutiae may seem trivial at this time but thinking back on them, I realize how much I’ve appreciated the effort. Mostly though I’ve appreciated the people. The ladies in the Austin club (they’ev all been ladies) have been amazing, taking care of me during the worst of American’s operational challenges.
I haven’t been in during recent days to offer support, and I feel badly about that too. After 9/11 I brought treats to my local United Airlines City Ticket Office to support the employees that I’d gotten to know and had been so helpful to me over the years.
With Americans being told not to travel abroad, and non-residents who have been in Europe over the past 14 days not permitted to travel to the U.S., American Airlines has reduced its transatlantic and transpacific flying to three routes total.
However supply chains matter as much – probably more – than ever before, as anyone who has tried to get toilet paper in the last week can probably attest.
No airline has done as much to keep customers whose travel has been disrupted from getting refunds as United Airlines has. However they’re not the only bad actor. British Airways intentionally deceived customers about their refund rights.
I’ve been asked by several readers why they aren’t getting points and taxes back on Avios award bookings. Here’s the trick you need to know to get what the rules entitle you to.
For the week of March 8 – 14, hotel data on occupancy and room rates is now available. In the U.S. revenue per available room was down a whopping 32.5% year-over-year. Since occupancy was ‘only’ down 24.4% by then, we can confidently state that things are worse this week, and will gett worse still.
Real customers have come up with inventions to improve the inflight experience. They’re not always uncontroversial. The knee defender keeps the passenger in front of you from reclining but has also led to conflicts. Less so the armrest splitter or the spAIRtray which gives you a little ledge beside the window seat that you install in the aircraft window.
Now comes a new innovation truly for our times: a stick on, peel off faux stained glass window to create ambiance in the cabin, help you pray, and stand between you and germs on the window.
In London just in advance of travel restrictions going into effect, American Airlines President Robert Isom traveled across the Pond to speak to employees there. American employees nearly 1000 people in the U.K.
He spoke at the British Airways headquarters at Waterside, and said that while they aren’t going to spend “even a dollar” that they do not have to, they owe it to customers not to degrade the inflight experience and that the company is “prepared to weather any type of storms that come up and says there’s “enough cash on hand to weather downturns in the business.” And that was before they picked up another billion dollars just today. Still they want to ensure that if the government is handing out money, they’re well-positioned to get some.
It appears that things aren’t on the verge of going back to full normal in just a couple of months – and what we think of as full normal might even change.
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 »
