Are these recent reports from American Airlines international first class really that surprising, when there’s so little emphasis on what service delivery for premium customers looks like at American?
Club Premier is 49% owned by Aimia, the company that spun off Air Canada’s Aeroplan, lost 80% of its market value when Air Canada announced its intention to start a competing program, and then sold the program back to the airline. Aimia has the demonstrated capability to run a good operation. In this case however they are part of one of the worst frequent flyer programs.
British Airways flight crew have a reputation for being some of the rowdiest in the world, and ‘things to tend to happen’ during Singapore layovers (Johannesburg, Las Vegas, Bangkok, and Nairobi are also well known trouble spots).
Over the summer it was a game of naked spin the bottle that got out of hand in Singapore. Two years ago it was crew running naked through hotel corridors, stealing fish.
Now during a Singapore layover “[s]ome of the crew got plastered, allegedly using drinks smuggled off the BA in-flight trolley” and this led to an altercation in the lobby and a suspension.
American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 25% bonus on transfers to Air France KLM Flying Blue through November 30. You’ll need to log into your American Express account to see the bonus (otherwise it’ll show with the standard 1:1 transfer ratio).
I find that Air France’s availability and award pricing is very attractive for US-Europe flying.
I criticize many of the decisions that American Airlines leadership have made. They’ve managed to anger shareholders, employees, and customers alike. While racking up more debt and worse operating statistics than competitors they’ve also re-started their project to degrade the domestic product.
There’s one area though that they’ve performed at an outstanding level.
China now tells U.S. airlines whether or not China-bound U.S. citizens are allowed to board their planes. What’s new is an Interactive Advanced Passenger Information system (iAPI) that airlines are using to ask the Chinese government for permission to allow each of its passengers onto its China-bound flights. This system will also be used to determine whether a passenger is allowed to leave China.
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.
Mark Sanford is running for President in the Republican primary against Donald Trump. He is best known for disappearing for six days while serving as Governor of South Carolina. He had told staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. He didn’t return calls from staff, or check in with his family on Father’s Day.
When Singapore Airlines gets media for its catering operations, or for its business class product (or first class!) it’s reaching potential customers, sure, but it’s reaching a broader audience that may never fly Singapore Airlines and may never visit Singapore. However it’s projecting the image of Singapore itself as high quality.
A significant amount of public perception of Singapore the country seems to come from Singapore the airline, even among people who have never flown the airline (or who fly it and merely connect through Changi airport).
While not in use today, the major company collecting and distributing airfares for airlines announced at their annual conference that they’re closer than ever to delivering true ‘dynamic’ airfares that are customized for each person searching for a trip. This is a new way for airlines to increase revenue, by delivering a different offer to each customer based on their willingness to pay.
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 »
