Flight Attendants Union Head, Responsible For Low Starting Wages, Blames “Sexism”

by Gary Leff

Dec 23 2023

The lowest wages are earned by the newest flight attendants. This structure is something unions have bargained for over decades and multiple contracts. Low wages to start, and higher wages as seniority grows, is something that benefits more senior crewmembers. The airline ultimately doesn’t care nearly as much about how the cost of flight attendants is distributed across flight attendants.

Though the union itself is responsible for low starting wages, AFA-CWA union head Sara Nelson says that it’s actually… sexism.

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Spirit Airlines Sent 6 Year Old First Time Flyer To Wrong Airport While Family Panics

by Gary Leff

Dec 23 2023

Spirit Airlines sent a 6 year old flying alone to the wrong airport in Florida. They wound up hundreds of miles away from their waiting family. The child’s first time ever on a plane was taking a trip from Philadelphia to Fort Myers. The airline sent them to Orlando instead. The airline told his grandmother, who was waiting at the gate, that he “missed his flight.” Despite security protocols, she said that she “ran inside the plane to the flight attendant” and asked her, Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia? The flight attendant said “No, I had no kids with me.” Then the child called (impressive for a six year old!) saying he’d landed. His luggage went to Fort Myers, his grandmother drove to Orlando to collect him. Spirit is…

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Parenting at 30,000 Feet: United Airlines Passenger Lets Child Draw on Tray Table, Nobody Cleans It

by Gary Leff

Dec 22 2023

A United Airlines passenger flying to Saint Martin on Thursday pulled down their tray table to find children’s drawings in orange, green, black and blue.

This wasn’t the only – or even biggest – problem they had with their flight. They note rude flight attendants and that “a fight broke out.” The only thing they had to say about their tray is that “no one bothered to clean” it. But it shouldn’t have even been dirtied like that in the first place. Who draws pictures on their seat back tray, instead of using paper?

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Bilt Rewards Is Introducing Real Elite Status Levels, With New Requirements

by Gary Leff

Dec 22 2023

Loyalty programs are really two components bundled in one: recognition and reward. Earn and burn of points matters, but so do elite benefits, which entail better treatment for your best customers.

Bilt Rewards has been mostly an earn and burn program to do, and a very lucrative one at that. But when they launched they clearly recognized the need for an elite level and built out the skeleton of one.

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Air France KLM Flying Blue On The Rise: Why It Will Continue To Outshine SkyMiles

by Gary Leff

Dec 22 2023

Air France KLM’s Flying Blue is the best frequent flyer program in the SkyTeam alliance. It’s legions better than Delta SkyMiles. At the airline’s investor day, they explained how they’ll be doubling down on the loyalty program to drive profits, as relayed by Brian Sumers in his invaluable Substack. U.S. airlines see loyalty programs as cash cows. That’s not as true elsewhere. In Europe and Australia, credit card interchange is regulated, so rewards card deals aren’t as lucrative. In Australia, we’ve seen Qantas make each point worth less in order to keep awarding around one point per dollar for credit card spend. (Card fees have gone up, and in some cases points-earning has been capped.) In Europe the cards themselves aren’t as profitable, and the deals look different. For instance a past Air France-American Express…

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Is Delta Air Lines Exaggerating The Success Of Its American Express Credit Cards?

by Gary Leff

Dec 21 2023

Before the pandemic the American Airlines co-brand portfolio had the largest charge volume, but American, United and Delta were all over $100 billion annually.

In June Delta Air Lines made big news claiming to have broken away from the pack reporting that “approaching 1% of U.S. GDP” in charge volume on their co-brand cards. They appeared to suggest over a quarter trillion dollars being spend on Delta American Express cards.

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