The government shutdown continues to affect airport security wait times. Sick out calls have been hovering over 7% for the past week, peaking at 10% this past Sunday.
Air traffic control centers faced staffing shortages today that led to delays across the Northeast including the major New York airports of Newark and LaGuardia as well as Philadelphia. There were delays in and out of Tampa as well.
During American Airlines’ earnings call this morning Cowen & Company’s Helane Becker asked airline President Robert Isom, “If you polled your customers what would they say is the #1 complaint about the airline, and what are you doing about it?”
The airline’s approach to unhappy customers – declining likelihood to recommend scores – appears to be to double down on the same approach they’ve been taking at the very time those scores have been falling.
If you could sue an airline just because you hurt your back inflight I think we’d have seen a whole lot more lawsuits since the introduction of ‘slimline’ seats that have less padding, and so take up less space, and allow airlines to squeeze seats in closer together.
One man though says he hurt his back when his United flight diverted to Goose Bay, Canada in October and he’s been having “horrible plane crash nightmares” ever since.
American laid out their strategic objectives for 2019 to employees. It breaks down goals into financial performance, employees, and customers. Here’s what you can expect from the airline.
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.
Effective May 9 Lufthansa is making changes to their award chart. You can book at old rates until that time. In general premium cabin awards are going up around 6% or so, which isn’t terrible relative to trends in much of the world and that the chart has been constant for some time.
A family was kicked off an American Airlines flight from Miami to Detroit on Wednesday. American says it was because they smelled. They say it’s because they’re Jewish.
They were given hotel and meal costs and rebooked to fly home today.
Unlike Delta which no longer publishes award charts at all, and unlike United which doesn’t publish premium economy award pricing American has added premium economy to its published award chart pricing.
What’s more, unlike United which doesn’t seem to make premium economy saver awards available, American has made saver space for premium economy available at the get go.
American Airlines has launched a new award search tool. It runs alongside – rather than, at this point, being a replacement for – their existing award search.
The calendar feature isn’t available yet and the ability to filter results isn’t either. This new tool also does not allow you to book new Economy Web Special awards either.
American Airlines Group is earning a profit, albeit less than the minimum CEO Doug Parker promised they’d ever see. Whether or not they’ll ever lose money again though hinges on the success of their frequent flyer program — and whether they can recognize they aren’t offering a flight product that customers want to pay a premium for.
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 »
