Everyone is mad mad at Southwest Airlines for abandoning its business model, customer focus, and core principles. They’re laying off employees, outsourcing, eliminating free checked bags, moving to (paid) assigned seats and devaluing Rapid Rewards.
So now is the perfect time for another airline to go after their customers aggressively, court them, and win them over. American Airlines is doing that – but just isn’t really telling anyone about it?
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.
We now know something about what routes will see these new planes first. Aviation watchdog JonNYC says that the plan is for the plane to operate domestically Chicago to Los Angeles and back, before going into international service on the Chicago – London Heathrow route.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was photographed flying first class on Tuesday with fellow Vermont Senator Peter Welch. Many people online are calling the self-described socialist Sanders a hypocrite for flying in a premium class of service, while the working classes suffer coach.
When Southwest Airlines moves to assigned seating they will no longer line everyone up prior to boarding. Like the rest of the airline’s moves, Southwest’s boarding process will converge towards being much more like other airlines.
Gone will be the stanchions, and having passengers line up by group and number. In its place with be 9 boarding groups.
Delta SkyMiles is one of the least valuable frequent flyer programs for mileage earning and redemption. It’s that way intentionally. But it has been even worse for Europeans, and for members who want to book one-way tickets back from Europe.
Back in the fall I broke news that American Airlines was testing new tech to enforce boarding groups at its gates. One gate agent in Dallas, though, doesn’t think that’s enough. They threaten passengers with additional consequences for trying to board out of turn.
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.
There won’t be doors. Instead, like the current seat, there’s a privacy curtain for the seat. What’s nice is that the center seats feature a “full-height, electric sliding partition” for total separation or allow passengers to more fully travel together.
They’ve removed overhead bins from the cabin – something other carriers do in first class, as well, to create a more spacious feel. For storage there’s a sliding drawer that holds carry-ons, a drawer for footwear, and a compartment for personal items and a wardrobe.
For the first time in company history, Southwest Airlines let go of 1,700 non-union employees at its headquarters. Employees were banned from corporate headquarters and firings took place online.
Now, in addition to major business changes like selling seat assignments and charging for checked bags, the airline is going to be outsourcing its skycap service.
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 »
