American Airlines is starting to improve in ways that finally show up in the numbers, with customer satisfaction rising faster than at any other major U.S. airline even as the carrier posted another quarterly loss. That is real progress, but the earnings call also made clear how much is still broken — from fleet and seat mix to customer service, coastal relevance, and the lack of a fully realized strategy employees can actually execute.
American Airlines is not just grading flight attendants on customer experience and operational metrics — it is also tying their scores to credit card approvals. That matters because the airline’s most profitable business is selling miles to Citibank, which means inflight card pitches are no longer just a side hustle for crew but part of how performance itself gets measured.
Spirit Airlines is now days away from liquidation, but its collapse did not come out of nowhere. The airline lost the cost advantage that once made it a success, kept selling a product customers increasingly did not want, and then watched bigger rivals learn how to match its fares while offering a better experience.
American Airlines explored a merger with Alaska, and while those talks reportedly did not advance, the two carriers are now working on a revenue-sharing deal that could deepen an already unusually close partnership. That matters because American badly needs stronger relevance on the West Coast, while Alaska gains more global reach and loyalty value by tying itself more tightly to a larger international network.
Frontier Airlines has lost in court after keeping $5.4 million in TSA security taxes that passengers paid on tickets they never used, then arguing the money was theirs once travel credits expired. The ruling is a warning to other carriers still fighting the same battle, because it says those fees were never the airline’s money to keep in the first place.
The son of a top Iranian regime insider was filmed boarding a private jet to Ibiza with a Louis Vuitton bag, the latest display in a long-running social media parade of luxury cars, parties, and contempt for poorer Iranians – underscoring the Islamic Republic’s core hypocrisy: austerity, repression, and moral policing for everyone else, indulgence and Western excess for the families of insiders.
An off-duty flight attendant flying as a passenger delayed an AirAsia flight for about 90 minutes after refusing to calm down, insisting crew speak Chinese, and forcing police to board the aircraft.
The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a $500 million bailout for Spirit Airlines, a carrier that has already burned through bankruptcy, taxpayer aid, and private capital without finding a viable business model. If this goes through, it will not just hand public money to a failing airline — it will normalize using legally dubious federal power to socialize losses for companies the market has already given up on.
Finnish Air Force cadets turned a routine training exercise into a juvenile aviation tradition, tracing at least four phalluses and two hearts in the sky near Jyväskylä. The flights reportedly stayed within their assigned training area and posed no danger, but the Air Force says the cadets still face disciplinary consequences.
American Airlines will announce a deal that gives ConciergeKey members access to PS private terminals, extending one of the most exclusive ground products in commercial aviation to its top customers. This fits with PS’s expansion into Dallas and Miami this summer and gives American a new way to make its invitation-only status feel meaningfully more premium than priority check-in, golf carts, and upgrade priority.
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 »
