American managed to schedule flights for Christmas with no pilots. And their costly solution — if indeed it solves the problem — is to pay pilots more to work.
It should come as no surprise then that about 12 hours ago American started looking for a new Director of Crew Scheduling, someone to help sort out their mess.
An IT glitch gave too many American Airlines pilots Christmas off so the airline has been offering time and a half to anyone with an accidental vacation who’ll pick up a shift.
That’s gotten huge media play over the last 24 hours, with concern that plenty of Christmas flights would be cancelled.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s sister wrote to Alaska Airlines yesterday about sexual harassment on board.
They offered to re-seat her, but she refused, saying “Why should I have to move? I am the one that is being harassed!”
American’s new coach seat isn’t worse than the worst coach seat out there now. But the worst coach seat out there now is a problem. Take away the seat back TV from many existing American Airlines aircraft, shrink the lavatory, and reduce the room offered even in Main Cabin Extra and first class and you have an across-the-board reduction in customer value.
Telling passengers that they should get a new job if they can’t pay American Airlines more money seems strange when the passenger can keep their current job and fly the largest domestic passenger airline instead.
Swiss first class awards are a unicorn, and people go to sort of crazy lengths for it.
Swiss first class is usually only available using miles for elite frequent flyers in the Miles & More program. The ability to use United, Aeroplan, and other Star Alliance miles — or even Miles & More miles without elite status — ended in 2014.
When you see new plane orders they’re usually announced with the list prices for aircraft that no one actually pays. Roughly you should divide that number in half.
Aircraft manufacturers try to keep secret actual purchase prices, because they don’t want to broadcast to all potential buyers how much of a discount they’ll really give. Plus big numbers make for great press releases. At the same time it’s hardly a secret that no one pays list.
United Airlines President Scott Kirby says people only care about price and that is why the airline offers such a bad product. Customers say they want a better product but whenever given the choice they choose the cheaper price.
But Basic Economy fares are premised on the exact opposite — that customers will choose product over price.
I booked myself onto American’s inaugural Boeing 737 MAX 8 this morning from Miami to New York LaGuardia to see what American’s new tighter seating was like up close and personal.
It turns out the seats themselves are no worse than American’s current coach product. The power and overhead bin situation is an improvement. The problem was the lavatories.
The lounge is bright with fantastic views, which is really the only great thing you can say about it. There aren’t any servers to assist you, though plenty of staff are around to bus tables. And there aren’t any ‘plus’ features to speak of either.
The lounge was fine for what it was, a nice bright atmosphere to catch up between flights and a place for a shower. But it’s really more of a business class lounge that’s not too crowded than a first class lounge.
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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 »
