Everyone is taking Elliott seriously, noting correctly that the airline has underperformed and failed to maximize its assets, and suggesting that current management doesn’t deserve to stay and execute on its own turnaround plan – without every questioning the seriousness or sincerity of Elliott’s own plan. But all you have to do is watch a famous old movie to get up to speed quickly.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
A Delta Air Lines first class passenger snapped a photo of the floor at their seat during a flight from Detroit to Phoenix, describing the man sitting next to them as “a hot mess.”
It gets much worse, and I wonder whether it’s surprising that a passenger who disrespects the airline’s property in this way would also disrespect another passenger’s property?
Early in Doug Parker’s tenure the company’s market cap reached $37 billion. It’s now just over $8 billion. At the airline’s Media and Investor Day in 2017, the CEO famously declared that they would ‘never lose money again.’ Whereas their major competitors’ stock has returned to trading at pre-pandemic levels, American’s returned to its pre-pandemic decline.
Under the contact form to submit an inquiry to American, when you choose AAdvantage account service, you can now select ‘status match’.
British Airways is still in cost-cutting mode. They just can’t help themselves. The latest is that they’re serving breakfast for lunch because it’s cheaper.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
A father flew business class from Chicago to Beijing while they left their kid in coach to annoy and be cared for whatever strangers happened to sit beside them. I hadn’t seen this story before, but it’s just been resurfaced. What’s unique is how one passenger decided to take revenge on the poor parenting – by doing a little poor parenting themselves.
I’m genuinely struck by the shift in United Airlines CEO Scoott Kirby since taking the reins at that airline. He was President of US Airways and American Airlines under Doug Parker, and known as a straight spreadsheet guy. At US Airways he wouldn’t even add inflight wifi until he could actually see customers booking away from the airline because they didn’t have it.
United is still careful with cost, and their new premium image often outstrips the reality of the product and experience, but they make investments in customer experience others aren’t making and take risks for payoffs that will be harder to quantify. And it’s working out for the airline.
Marine Corps veteran Catherine Banks was pulled off a flight from San Francisco on Wednesday when a flight attendant demanded she remove her shirt calling attention to veteran suicide. There were two problems for Banks: the message was important to her, and she didn’t have a bra on underneath.
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 »
