For the first time in company history, Southwest Airlines let go of 1,700 non-union employees at its headquarters. Employees were banned from corporate headquarters and firings took place online.
Now, in addition to major business changes like selling seat assignments and charging for checked bags, the airline is going to be outsourcing its skycap service.
Fascinating internal slides from United Airlines outline how their premium business is doing. They are excited about how their seat fees, premium economy, and business class are doing – especially notable is performance to what’s generally seen as the most premium market, London Heathrow – and how demand has shifted from traditional business travelers to premium leisure.
A passenger who had reportedly missed his flight – and who may have been intoxicated on St. Patrick’s Day – went on a rampage in Dublin airport terminal 1 today. The topless man, with face partially obscured, went about smashing structures and hurling objects around the terminal.
American, Delta and United can fly bigger planes and fill them with connecting passengers from small cities using smaller aircraft. Southwest can’t and that puts them at a disadvantage even keeping up with 737s. That’s a big reason why United is beating them in Denver, Delta chasing them from Atlanta, and so on.
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.
Most domestic airline passengers should book two one-way tickets, instead of buying a roundtrip. Yet people buy roundtrips. Here’s why you may be buying your airline tickets all wrong – you’ll save money and have greater flexibility.
The hotel incentivizes giving 9s and 10s. A hotel that actually wants to be better would incentivize providing constructive feedback. Here they incentivize helping them skirt Marriott brand standards. That’s the most franchised Marriott thing ever.
Flight attendants for United Airlines are allowed to drink while on duty in certain circumstances. So are flight attendants for Air Canada.
There’s a strange reason that American Airlines serves meals in first class between Chicago O’Hare and Denver.
The AI knows everything that isn’t secret. Your knowledge of public information will approach zero value. What isn’t published, then, becomes relatively more unique and valuable. Trading secrets’ – getting out and having discussions with people, trading off-the-record information and gossip becomes more valuable.
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 »
