Delta Air Lines has a corporate American Express card with a $1.1 billion credit line. They use it for fuel purchases – they’re one of the biggest buyers of jet fuel in the world. And they own an oil refinery.
The crazy thing is that they have to pay off this card monthly and they still max it out!
It seems clear that JetBlue is better off without the distraction and cost of a Spirit Airlines acquisition. They should work on a new American Airlines alliance similar to American’s deal with Alaska, which the anti-trust judge outlined would be permissible (and American in its earnings call said they’d consider a new partnership).
They need to get their operation under control, rebuild service to Boston, shift away from long haul international growth where they’re bleeding, and walk away from Southern California. Or else, expect Carl Icahn to dismantle the carrier and sell it for parts.
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.
Is American Airlines bumping paying passengers so that they can fly migrants out of southern border airports? That’s the claim being made across some sectors of the media. It takes one element of truth – that the number of migrants on planes out of a handful of airports has become substantial – and mixed it with an odd anecdote about a man who may have checked in late for his American Airlines flight and lost his seat.
There’s a live social media debate over whether expensive hotels are “that much better” so as to justify their extra cost – that a modest price over cheaper accommodations may buy you a better stay, but that once you get past a few hundred dollars the extra money just doesn’t buy you very much.
I think there’s a lot of nuance to this, and I don’t spend $600 or more out of pocket on room nights myself though I regularly redeem points for hotels that cost far more than this. My controversial take is that I do feel that they can deliver a lot for the money! But that I’m reluctant to spend that money myself.
Jeff Bezos for years has preached a simple mantra: that the biggest mistake companies can make is focusing on what their competitors do, rather than what their customers want – and working backwards from satisfying the customer to figuring out the product.
TikTok isn’t just for showing off your Nyquil chicken, teaching people how to get points from Delta when your luggage is delayed or making videos about eating frozen honey. It’s turned into an e-commerce phenomenon.
And that’s creating a challenge for global air cargo as Shein, Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop try to ship products out of China, especially to consumers in the U.S.
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.
The FAA had gone to off-the-street hiring to meet diversity goals but the problem was there weren’t enough training slots, and qualified controllers were being passed over when we need controllers. Whitaker’s approach lets the agency train controllers from a variety of backgrounds without sacrificing onboarding those that have gone through training privately already.
But what if New York TRACON refuses all new controllers to keep their overtime hours up?
American Airlines flight attendants want bigger raises than American is offering and they want retro pay back several years, like pilots (who have far more leverage).
So while the airline is holding its Investor Day on Monday afternoon, flight attendants will be holding a protest on Wall Street. The location is meant to symbolize investors, or something? Plus it’s New York, so maybe there will be media.
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 »
