At Friday’s Investor Day for the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, IAG management has come to the recognition that you cannot be all things to all people.
That’s a lesson that Southwest Airlines understands but American Airlines does not.
When United announced at the end of September that earning 100,000 mile flyer ‘1K’ status would also require $15,000 in spending starting next year it was almost a foregone conclusion that American AAdvantage would do the same thing.
Meanwhile they’re introducing a new choice benefit for Executive Platinums who fly beyond 100,000 miles as well as adjusting mileage and status-earning when flying on their closest partner airlines or on ‘bulk’ or special fares.
American Airlines is buying 15 more Embraer EMB-175 76 seat regional jets.
These aircraft will go to American Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Envoy Air (formerly American Eagle) and are expected to be delivered starting in 2020. Likely for reasons of fleet commonality and price they did not opt for the potentially more comfortable E-2 variant of the plane.
Low cost transatlantic carrier Primera has gone out of business while Wow Air cuts routes. Norwegian is selling planes and could still be acquired by British Airways parent IAG.
The market for flying passengers across the Pond at low prices is being shaken up. There was too much capacity pushing down prices too far especially as fuel prices rise. Now it looks like we’re seeing some actual consolidation in this market.
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.
At the end of September I revealed that American will be squeezing more seats into their Airbus A321 fleet, not just their Boeing 737s as well as adding more first class seats.
They accomplish this with less distance between seats, less padding for each seat, and smaller lavatories.
This experience using trip delay coverage from the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card didn’t work out the way the cardmember expected.
Walking through the reason why so that you can set your expectations correctly and know how to succeed with your own claims may be useful.
ConciergeKey is American’s revenue-based top level, given to very high revenue customers and those who influence significant business for the airline.
It’s the ‘super secret’ level that George Clooney had in Up in the Air. The program began mostly for corporate travel buyers and folks in their old VIP program back in 2007, and gradually expanded to individual high revenue customers.
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.
It’s become all too common to believe that the only things customers care about are schedule and price. This idea has been at the core of the ‘race to the bottom’ where legacy airlines strive to become more like ultra low cost carriers and then fail to understand why customers are unhappy.
Now that British Airways parent company IAG is telling investors that a quarter of the buying decision is based on brand, can we put to rest the notion that what customers think of their travel experience doesn’t matter for a full service high cost airline?
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 »
