Hilton Honors offers free 90 days of status to anyone with current elite status in a major hotel program that has stayed at a hotel at least once in the last 24 months. Then, if you stay with them you can keep or upgrade the status – valid for nearly two full years at this point.
The offer has been available for some time but it’s just been changed.
Customers won’t choose an airline that doesn’t get them where they’re going. But those are table stakes. Delta and United have pursued a premium strategy. American isn’t. But with American’s high costs, they need to earn a revenue premium for their product. That means customers need to spend more – on premium products, and choosing them over competitors.
The airline’s first quarter losses, and continued financial underperformance compared to Delta and United, show that improved operations aren’t enough. They’re just a start. Airline management, though, doesn’t seem to understand this.
Friday’s Denver to Omaha United flight 1279 landed at around 4:45 p.m. – but appears to have been on the ground for over an hour before making it to the gate. The flight landed during a tornado warning. While it sat on the tarmac, a tornado hit the ground at 5:08 p.m.
The airport was temporarily shut down to evaluate the extent of the storm’s impact. The main terminal remained intact, but general aviation on the eastern side of the airport suffered damage.
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.
Following Thursday’s American Airlines earnings call, senior management held a company all-hands “State Of The Airline” address. Over 4,000 employees tuned in live to the presentation and question and answer session, and a recording was placed online.
After talking through the news around his own compensation, CEO Robert Isom laid out where things stand with the company’s offer to flight attendants. This proved to be setting up the most dramatic moment of the event.
After American’s earnings call on Thursday, in prepared remarkets to the airline’s employees as a ‘State of the Airline’ event (a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing), Isom brought up his pay package and fumbled through an explanation. And as they say, when you’re explaining you’re losing. He came across as defensive and unsure of himself.
An American Airlines passenger flying from Charlotte to Munich purchased a business class ticket that they say cost them $4,600. Once they boarded they discovered that their seat did not move. It did not recline. It did not turn into a bed. It was just a seat – not the thing they had purchased.
One of the more shocking things – beyond dirty seats – has been missing seat backs in first class, with seats taken out of service. The response from the airline (and some readers) has been that it’s better to fly planes in this condition than delay flights to address the problem. But I’ve always wondered, what are they doing when the planes aren’t flying to maintain the interiors so that this doesn’t happen so frequently?
You’re not allowed to bring bottles filled with water through airport security. Bottled water is often much more expensive at the airport. If you want to avoid the single use plastics, or just save money, airports frequently have filling stations.
At the Detroit airport these water filling machines solicit tips.
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.
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 »
