TSA screeners are calling out from work by the hundreds, in a challenge that’s expected to get significantly worse, after the agency announced that screeners are now allowed to take paid time off, no questions asked under “weather and safety leave” if they feel at all uncomfortable reporting to work. In fact, it’s expected that thousands of screeners will begin calling out from their jobs.
IATA, the International Air Transport Association – the international trade association for airlines – says airlines should not have to refund a customer’s money when flights are cancelled.
Thursday morning I laid out the realistic pessimistic view that we aren’t going to see ‘normal’ again for quite some time, and that what we even think of as normal may shift.
One indication of this is that American Airlines has extended change fee waivers for passengers traveling through May 31.
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.
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 »
