Frequent Flyer Program Head Warns Airlines About Risk of Further Devaluations

by Gary Leff

zimbabwe currency
Nov 22 2018

It’s this success that left me perplexed — why would airlines continually devalue their frequent flyer programs? These are highly profitable multi-billion dollar businesses. Yet each cut risks undermining that business. Now this very warning comes from inside the industry.

Loyalty program executives — and their airline bosses — need to realize just what’s at stake: “As more full-service airline loyalty programs strip away benefits, devalue the currency and make it more challenging to earn meaningful rewards, the cracks in the dam will continue to grow, more rapidly, until one day the game will be over and full-service airline loyalty programs, and their billions in revenues – begin to wash away.”

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We’re #1! The World’s Largest Aviation Markets

by Gary Leff

arch like building
Nov 21 2018

The U.S. is the world’s aviation largest market — by a lot. The EU as a whole is larger than Chinese market. The UK is the biggest aviation market in Europe, so perhaps Brexit will be what causes China to grow larger than Europe.

Japan is a bigger market than India, though a decade from now will that still be the case? India has nearly doubled in the past seven years. (So has China.)

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Results of the New American Airlines Employee Survey Are Out

by Gary Leff

american survey
Nov 21 2018

We know that mechanics are unhappy about their inability to get a new contract and anecdotally have been causing some of the airline’s operational challenges. Flight attendants are embarrassed by the new domestic product that the airline offers. Perhaps survey data that can be seen in a spreadsheet will underscore some of what employees have been telling management each month already.

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Southwest Airlines Baggage Handler Plays Toss The Luggage, The Fist Pump is Priceless

by Gary Leff

baggage handler holding box
Nov 21 2018

A passenger who flew Southwest Airlines from Tampa to Phoenix caught cell phone video of a baggage handler tossing boxes coming off the aircraft into a bin. Even boxes of live fish.

What makes our hero more than just your average negligent employee is the enthusiasm for his sport. He bounces on the balls of his feet as he readies to toss a box. And after he nails his throw he offers a fist pump. Victory over great customer service is his!

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Boeing 787 Full of Passengers Held Up Until Passengers Came Up With $360 to Pay for Repairs

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Nov 20 2018

In 2012 an Air France flight bound for Beirut diverted to Damascas and passengers were forced to come up with cash for additional fuel. The pilot couldn’t use a company credit card because of financial sanctions imposed on Syria.

So as insane as it sounds it’s not without precedent that passengers on a Star Alliance member LOT Polish Boeing 787 flight were asked to reach into their pockets to cover repair costs to the plane’s hydraulic pump before a Beijing to Warsaw journey could begin last Monday.

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Aeroflot Revokes Elite Status From Journalists and Customers Who Criticize the Airline

by Gary Leff

flight attendants in red
Nov 20 2018

Earlier this year Aeroflot announced that they would revoke the elite status of passengers who behaved badly inflight. Accounts would be closed and miles forfeit.

That policy is now being used to punish journalists and customers who criticize or embarrass the airline. As Yakov Smirnoff might have said, “In Soviet Russia, elite status downgrades you!”

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American Airlines Introduces A Flight Worse Than All its Others

by Gary Leff

air flight map
Nov 20 2018

American is introducing a flight to compete with all of the painful experiences they’ve offered to customers in the past — and that’s certainly worse than anything else they’re offering today.

Starting in May their Miami to Brazil’s capital of Brasilia flight will no longer be flown by a Boeing 757 with lie flat business class seats. Instead they’ll run the flight with a Boeing 737 MAX. Since the plane has no ovens in back, economy customers will eat hummus.

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