Should US Airlines Be Outsourcing More of Their Maintenance?

by Gary Leff

american airlines hangar
Aug 09 2018

American Airlines gave employees across the board raises without insisting that the pay changes be part of a contract. The airline says that’s made it harder to get mechanics to agree to a contract. American mechanics have already gotten much of the money they’re going to get with a new contract, so there’s less incentive for employees to agree to rules changes the airline wants.

The carrier is offering terms they say are more costly than what United and Delta have with their mechanics, so a common refrain from management has been that they would happily sign either the United or Delta deal today.

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Your Child’s Health Isn’t This Airline’s Concern During Flight Delays

by Gary Leff

chid with men
Aug 09 2018

So what happens when a Paris – Islamabad flight was delayed on August 3rd, it was hot outside, and there’s no working air conditioning on the plane? The aircraft doors were closed for a couple of hours. And passengers onboard flight PK750 were in extreme discomfort. Indeed, “a mother was begging for to open the door and to save her child who was completely unconscious when the air conditioning system was completely off” according to at least one report.

There’s footage from onboard the plane “show[ing] a woman pleading with the airline staff to open the door as her infant was experiencing breathlessness before take off.”

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Chase Launching New ‘Sapphire Banking’ August 27

by Gary Leff

chasebank
Aug 07 2018

After Chase introduced their Sapphire Reserve Card they immediately took a $200 – $300 million hit to their bottom line. They took another $330 million charge in the just-completed second quarter for rewards expense.

The strategy then for making money on affluent customers moves to cross-selling, which is why they’ve offered points bonuses for new mortgages. Here’s the next stage.

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Great ANA First Class Award Availability, and a Brief Window to Book at a Discount

by Gary Leff

first class cabin
Aug 07 2018

There’s a 30% bonus on transfers from Amex to Virgin Atlantic right now and Virgin offers the cheapest US-Asia first class awards on their partner ANA.

So it seemed worth taking a look at ANA first class availability. And right now the Houston and Chicago routes especially have great availability beginning in 2019 through end of schedule.

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Book 3-Cabin International First Class With Delta Miles (For Real)

by Gary Leff

china eastern airline cabin
Aug 07 2018

China Eastern flies Shanghai – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (they also serve Honolulu, but with equipment that lacks a first class cabin). Beyond Shanghai of course you can connect to myriad destinations.

Delta of course owns a piece of China Eastern, so I choose to believe this is intentional, making that airline’s best product available for redemption by SkyMiles members.

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Taiwan May Retaliate Against Airlines for Complying With Chinese Speech Demands

by Gary Leff

temple
Aug 07 2018

When the US administration amped up trade rhetoric on China, China began squeezing US companies especially ones with visible brands. Marriott fired a social media employee who ‘liked’ a Friends of Tibet tweet, and even self-reported a banned book in the lobby of one of its hotels. China has insisted travel companies not list Taiwan as a separate country.

Of course, they’ve largely complied. US airlines though haven’t gone so far as to identify Taiwan as explicitly part of China as many world airlines have. Indeed US airlines are trapped between their Chinese regulators and needing to appease the government at home which has publicly rebuked China for attempting to regulate US corporate speech.

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