In the American Airlines internal podcast Kurt Stache, American’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Loyalty talked about the airline’s new Airbus A321neo, on board entertainment, the airline’s new mission, and getting customers to want to recommend the airline.
He’s a legacy American Airlines executive who once ran the AAdvantage program, and AAdvantage reports up to him.
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.
In our post-9/11 world airlines have quickly turned customer service problems into law enforcement problems. A customer creating a “disturbance” might really be creating a “distraction” for bad people to do bad things. It doesn’t matter how unlikely this is, especially prior to departure while still on the ground. The culture of precaution and ‘not being too careful’ has granted huge deference to the judgments flight crews make in the instant. And it’s allowed prejudice and ego to trump good sense.
How many times have we seen a passenger act concerned with a flight attendant moving their carry on bag in the overhead, and being asked in response, “Are we going to have a problem?”
I told you that ‘simplicity’ was the direction American was headed with their catering, and I’ve also written that the option to pick a good meal seemed too generous. So it shouldn’t surprise that there are significant cutbacks in the special meal program.
The Asian Vegetarian, Hindu, and Muslim meals are all the same thing, they just list the options separately. No more meat, then, with Muslim meals. The diabetic meal won’t get steak anymore, now it’s chicken. And meals will be frozen rather than fresh with a one year shelf life. Yum!
Two months ago I wrote that American would be introducing ‘seat coupons’, so that non-elites and Gold members could earn preferred seat assignments on American Airlines instead of having to pay for these seats.
Seat assignments — even the most undesirable ones, if a non-elite wants them in advance — can come at a premium. So ‘coupons’ to get them without cost or at a discount at some level have value.
At some level if a US airline cannot compete against an Italian one, a ‘government-controlled’ one no less, they probably shouldn’t be in business. And shouldn’t they worry about how about half of their passengers feel when they’re flattering the President as election season heats up?
What they’re so worried about – and running to the President for protection from – is an airline in Italy with 15 planes that’s just suspended winter service from Los Angeles and San Francisco – and that cancelled Chicago service before it even began.
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 little bit of rain throws a monkey wrench in air travel in and out of Dallas. DFW actually stands for doesn’t function wet.
However it’s Dallas’ Love Field that seems to be taking the brunt of today’s storms so far, at least if flooding in the A parking garage is any indication.
It’s usually risky to fly one itinerary on separate tickets. That’s because when you’re on one ticket, if you face a flight delay or cancellation the airline responsible for the irregularity has to get you to your final destination. But if you’re on separate tickets they usually don’t have to do anything more than get you as far as the end of the ticket you’re flying on.
Fortunately — in a world where little seems to go the way of the customer — American Airlines has a policy of taking care of customers connecting on separate tickets as long as one flight is with American and the next is with either American itself or a oneworld partner. And I’ve confirmed that this policy is still in force.
Nothing renews an airline like new planes but absent a giant plane order there always seems to be the thought that the airline can be refreshed by painting planes. It’s a years-long process and costly to undertake.
Ultimately though what United is unveiling is just an evolution. So for me at least it doesn’t induce a strong reaction at all, which is good compared to so many other attempts. But that leads me to wonder why bother at all?
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 »
