Here’s How You Use Twitter to Solve Travel Problems

by Gary Leff

american plane
May 20 2016

Yesterday I was in New York and supposed to fly home on American’s 5:15pm New York JFK – Austin flight. I decided I really didn’t want to wind up in coach for the Westbound flight which runs about 4 hours, so I plunked down a Business ExtrAA one-segment upgrade when only 2 first class seats were left for sale a few weeks out.

The thing about paper upgrade certificates though is that they have to be turned in at the airport. You cannot check-in online or using American’s mobile app.

I had checked traffic and it was looking like almost an hour to JFK. I fired up my phone and grabbed an Uber at 2:50pm. I was in the car at 3pm. Waze said I’d be at the airport by 3:50pm. That all changed as we approached the Midtown tunnel. There was an accident just as we were entering, and traffic stopped.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Fuel Subsidies May Be Safe For Now

by Gary Leff

May 19 2016

American Airlines had apparently feared losing their fuel tax exemptions in North Carolina which amount to big government breaks on the cost of fuel there. The North Carolina House passed its budget without touching American’s tax subsidies. The state Senate has yet to take up the budget.

But wait. I’m confused. American Airlines CEO Doug Parker says it’s unfair that he has to compete with big Middle East airlines which he claims are the ones getting government subsidies.

Continue Reading »

Viral Complaint About American Airlines is Only 30% Right

by Gary Leff

May 19 2016

Dave Carruthers was supposed to fly American Airlines flight AA211 from Manchester, UK to New York JFK but the flight was cancelled for mechanical reasons.

It’s not clear from his complaint what happened next. He says he spent ~ US$2000 to get to London Heathrow and fly to New York to make business meetings, which sounds like he wasn’t just put on an American (or British Airways) London – New York flight. Mr. Carruthers’ bags weren’t promptly sent to New York.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines President Believes to Make Money, Give Customers Less

by Gary Leff

May 19 2016

American Airlines President Scott Kirby spoke at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2016 Transportation Conference this morning.

The single biggest area of interest among institutional investors, and naturally the very first question Kirby got, was about revenue per available seat mile. Ticket prices are falling. The airline is hugely profitable thanks to low fuel prices, but profits have gone up even as revenue has fallen. Interestingly many of the items he focuses on to drive revenue are about the AAdvantage program.

Continue Reading »

Southwest Devalues Again, Third Time in Less Than 3 Years

by Gary Leff

May 18 2016

Southwest Airlines introduced ‘Rapid Rewards 2.0’ — their revenue-based program — in 2011. After just two and a half years they devalued their points about 15%, reducing the maximum value you can get out of a point to 1.43 cents.

Then a mere year later they devalued again by introducing a sliding scale of value — sometimes you’d still get 1.43 cents a point in value on their cheapest fares, but sometimes you’d get less. That change went into effect April 17, 2015 after two months’ notice.

Now, a year later, they appear to have devalued again and this time they did it without any notice at all.

Continue Reading »

American Will Introduce Domestic Premium Economy Next Year

by Gary Leff

May 18 2016

American Airlines President Scott Kirby spoke today at the Bank of America Transportation Conference and indicated that ‘premium economy’ would be coming to the domestic fleet in 2017.

‘Premium economy’ domestically sounds to me something akin to what Delta has done with their extra legroom product. American offers Main Cabin Extra which is just extra legroom seating. Delta bundles their extra legroom with free drinks and snacks (depending on flight length).

As of yesterday’s flights it’s a separate fare class that passengers get upgraded into on the basis of their elite status.

Continue Reading »

Don’t Do This When Going Through Immigration and Customs

by Gary Leff

May 18 2016

A passenger once left something in a British Airways lavatory so horrible the plane had to turn around and go back to Heathrow.

On the other end of the spectrum, a different passenger once left 24 gold bars in the lavatory of a Jet Airways flight. They were found when the aircraft was being cleaned in Kolkata. And it proved to the world that Jet Airways does, in fact, clean their lavatories.

Continue Reading »

This May Be the Pettiest Thing Delta Has Ever Done

by Gary Leff

May 17 2016

The Fox Theater in Atlanta is a storied institution. It was built in the 1920s, played a role in racial integration, and was the last venue Prince played before he died. Delta has supported it for over 20 years — until now.

The non-profit theater, which rents out space for private functions, allowed Qatar Airways to rent space — and didn’t call to ask Delta’s permission first.

Continue Reading »