A woman traveling with her elderly parents and her two year old was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight. Spirit says it’s for failing to follow crewmember instructions. But the crux of the matter is what were those crewmember instructions.
Since it was Spirit Airlines, the flight was delayed. She “unbuckled her child and began breastfeeding since the plane was still boarding” and her son was hungry.
American Airlines has offered inflight power to passengers for years, but US Airways didn’t. In fact, after America West acquired US Airways they removed power from the US Airways planes that already had it. The idea was to reduce weight and save fuel.
It’s been four years since the American Airlines – US Airways merger. And in four more years they’ll finish putting power into the old US Airways ‘basket of deplorables’ fleet.
After earning more than half the world’s airline industry profits for three consecutive years, US airlines will only earn nearly half the world’s profits for 2017.
Remember that the next time you hear about an airline asking government for special favors, protection for jobs, or subsidies to start international service from a local airport. The desperation in their voice is fake.
FICO scores (versus VantageScore) are used in 90% of credit decisions. FICO is used in mortgages, which is precisely what I care about my credit score for. I’m not marginal for an auto loan.
Most of the time I don’t worry about my credit score. Pay bills on time and for the most part most people will be fine. But credit scores do matter for the big stuff, and when the score is marginal it can make the difference between approval and denial for rewards credit cards.
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British Airways no longer has a positive net promoter score among its own customers. They obliterated their reputation very quickly. And data shows that customers have become more likely to leave British Airways for a low cost carrier.
So rather than making BA more competitive, they’ve given up their competitive edge. There are lessons here for US airlines as well.
I don’t even think it matters how “tasty” it is, this reader notes that he “ended up with red stains on [his] white shirt” despite there not even being any turbulence which American might want to consider does sometimes happen. On an airplane.
Tumi doesn’t often big sales. It’s expensive luggage, but it’s the archetypal bag for the business traveler. People love their Tumi bags, and they usually pay full price unless they’re just taking whatever’s on clearance. Amazon currently has 3 bags on sale with free Prime shipping and this won’t last, especially at just a smidge over 40% off for this first one: Tumi Vapor Lite Continental Carry-On, Chili, One Size $495 292.83 Tumi Vapor Lite Short Trip Packing Case, Chili, One Size $515 $385 Tumi Tegra-Lite Max International $695 $555 (HT: Pizza in Motion)
After two and a half years of intense lobbying by Delta, American, and United they haven’t been able to get the US government to abrogate its Open Skies treaty with the UAE and Qatar and impose limits on flights and on price discounting by Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar. The Obama administration flat refused to do it.
Ultimately at this point it appears not to really matter whether the US airlines officially ‘win’ the battle, getting Congress or the administration to take action against the US airlines. They’ve already won by creating background uncertainty.
jetBlue used to offer more legroom than they do today. They also offered a free first checked bag. Their flights still have a touch more room than American, United, and Delta do in coach. They have free wifi.
Their goal is clearly to be just a little bit better than their competitors, while avoiding being substantially better.
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 »
