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.
American’s pilots claim to be unhappy.
This is important because although American and US Airways have merged, and from a customer-facing standpoint are a single carrier (albeit with very different legacy products that the airline is slow to update), work groups are not yet on the same system and pilots do not yet have a single seniority list that will allow the airline to function as one.
There are still planes attached to destinations and crews, and that prevents American from matching the right equipment to the right route and optimize aircraft so that expensive capital equipment gets the most efficient use possible as well. In other words, many of the merger’s promised synergies remain on the table.
Ever since I first stay at the Andaz 5th Avenue I fell in love with that property’s overall value proposition, especially for a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member. Their rooms are generally large for New York anyway, and they have a ton of suites, so Diamonds often get upgrades even when not confirming a suite upgrade at time of booking. And they offer Diamonds breakfast via room service as well as in the restaurant. (The restaurant is small and this makes it possible to accommodate everyone.)
And I absolutely loved the Park Hyatt when I first got to stay there back in the Fall.
However in Manhattan I tend to choose a hotel for a given stay based first on location and then price (or rather ‘value for money’).
In the fall Delta will provide first class upgrades and extra legroom seating based on the higher passenger status rather than the lower status when two passengers are traveling together on the same reservation.
This is still a reduction in benefits for elites — who used to get extra legroom seating for themselves and up to 8 companions on a reservation. It’s now restricted to just one.
But instead of making Diamond and Platinum members wait for check-in to get extra legroom seats (if any are left) when traveling with a companion, the companion will no longer ‘drag down’ the elite. Instead the elite will ‘pull up’ the companion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 »
