American has been spending a lot of money wooing managed business travel and agencies. They’ve rebuilt a sales team and customer service and they’re paying out much bigger commissions and incentives. Sales expenses are up about $80 million for the quarter (commissions and GDS fees). But they aren’t bringing in more revenue.
United Airlines says their motto is “good leads the way” but does it? At least if the airline promises you they’ll reimburse you for a hotel room after an overnight delay – you shell out for the room, and then they say their fingers were crossed – you probably don’t think so.
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.
Southwest Airlines flight 1496 made a split-second dive to avoid a mid-air collision on Friday. The crew executed a startling descent of about 500 feet- dropping from around 14,100 feet to about 13,625 feet—to avoid a collision.
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 Airlines will start selling Premium Economy on New York JFK – Los Angeles on Monday for some flights beginning October 5th. This represents pulling the Airbus A321T that currently operates the route – with first class, business class, and economy – and replacing those with Boeing 777-200s.
This week I took a few American Airlines flights in first class, including on back-to-back days. That’s not unusual, except I pre-ordered meals and had forgotten I’d done so for day one when I pre-ordered day two.
Southwest has given up its advantages over competitors, its unique selling proposition. They’re becoming much more like less financially successful peers like American and JetBlue. But they’re worse.
For August 1 Rent Day, Bilt Rewards will run a transfer bonus up to 100% to Avianca LifeMiles. I’m not jumping on it, but maybe you should?
On Wednesday I wrote about a group of 50 Jewish kids being kicked off a flight, with their camp directly violently arrested. At the time the reports were the disruptiveness of the group was that some of them were singing in Hebrew, and they were collectively punished for it.
However this story – initially about disruptive singing, and about disrupting safety demonstrations – first in how the story was relayed informally and then in official statements, doesn’t appear to be quite what has been claimed.
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 »
