Delta Claims They’ll Be Carbon Neutral Starting Next Month, And I’m… Skeptical

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Feb 14 2020

Ultimately this is long on narrative, and in the near-term relies mostly on buying carbon offsets which are questionable in effectiveness and limited in supply (if every company wanted to fully offset there wouldn’t be nearly enough opportunity to go around, so Delta is in some sense just bidding up the price of offsets that will be taking place anyway).

Noble goals, and surely they’ll make progress towards those goals, but the claim that they’ll be a carbon neutral airline next month is dubious to say the least.

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New American Airlines Video Claims Cramming More Seats Into Planes Is ‘Amazing’ For Passengers

by Gary Leff

Feb 13 2020

American Airlines has a new internal video for employees explaining that cramming more seats onto planes is good for business and good for customers too. Vasu Raja, the airline’s Senior Vice President of Network Strategy, says that densifying “both for our customers, for our team, and for the future of american airlines that’s an amazing thing.”

There are four basic arguments American makes. I don’t think they hold up well to scrutiny.

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Barclays Launching An Emirates Credit Card In The U.S.

by Gary Leff

shower in plane
Feb 13 2020

Emirates offers a great product. They have some interesting airline partnerships. And they serve a number of U.S. gateways. To make a U.S. co-brand attractive they could take a lesson from the Chase British Airways card and offer a statement credit towards taxes and fees on redemptions each year, as well as offer fast mileage-earning and progress towards elite status along with upgrades on the airline.

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Boeing Says The 737 MAX Won’t Be Re-Certified Until Summer. American Says It Will Fly June 5. How Can That Be?

by Gary Leff

inside plane
Feb 12 2020

Boeing projected recently that re-certifying the 737 MAX will take until summer. Once it gets government approvals airlines still have to bring planes out of storage and prepare them for service, and they have to train pilots on new procedures – which will take time in part because of a limited number of available simulators.

And yet American Airlines and other carriers have the plane scheduled back into service in June. CEO Doug Parker updated employees on progress bringing the 737 MAX back into service during last week’s Crew News monthly question and answer session.

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Passengers Tossing Flight Attendant Thank You Notes. Should Cabin Crew Even Bother?

by Gary Leff

Feb 12 2020

An American Airlines flight attendant asked a community of frequent flyers about the value of ‘thank you notes’ written to passengers. Unanimously everyone loved the idea. But the flight attendant reported that several passengers just tossed their notes.

I wonder if this is something that people love in theory but don’t actually appreciate in practice?

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Four Big Changes To World Of Hyatt (Three Don’t Happen Until March 22)

by Gary Leff

Feb 12 2020

Annual category changes are pushing up prices at 117 Hyatt hotels, and 100 go down. Out of these 217 properties changing category 65 are SLH hotels.

Meanwhile Hyatt is adding 48 new SLH hotels to their portfolio, introducing variable pricing for cash and price awards, and implementing new peak and off peak award pricing. All of this goes into effect March 22.

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