Earlier in the month I took a trip to Honolulu and back on Hawaiian Airlines. They operate Austin – Honolulu non-stop three days a week, and since I hadn’t flown Hawaiian in a year and a half it seemed worth passing along some observations.
Passengers on a flight from Guiyang to Shanghai this past Saturday locked a crying toddler in an airplane lavatory in order to quiet her. The toddler, who appeared to be about one year old, was traveling with her grandparents and had been in tears non-stop throughout the nearly three-hour flight.
With DOT still to approve the deal, the opportunity for parties to get their wish lists in appears to be now. Approval so far has been helped by Hawaii’s supportive politicians. In exchange, Alaska has offered promises about what their stewardship of the brand and its routes will look like. It seems reasonable to expect some of those promises will be written into binding commitments by the federal government.
Congressman Ritchie Torres has attacked the CEOs of United, Delta, and American for ‘effectively boycotting Israel’ with their flight suspensions, noting that the U.S. government has not concluded these flights are unsafe to operate and that El Al continues to fly.
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The Westin Tempe narrowly avoided foreclosure. Now it’s hawking condoms to guests, as well as paid upgrades and late check-out, even to elite members of Marriott’s Bonvoy program.
It is very simple to model this. Ryanair sells alcoholic beverages. Airports are competition. Limiting airport sales will boost onboard sales. And Ryanair, more than most carriers, relies on ancillary rather rather than just ticket price.
JetBlue is struggling. They’ve turned themselves into a smaller version of a fee-based legacy airline, and given up much of their competitive difference. Now they aren’t making money, and they’re trying to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn.
The airline’s turnaround plan involves shrinking to profitability.
United Airlines is a flag carrier of the United States, which does not recognize a country of Palestine or the Hamas government in Gaza. There’s also nothing to suggest that this flight attendant is from Gaza or the West Bank in any case. And, wearing a pride pin beside a Palestinian flag is clearly confused at best. Does she think that LBGTQ+ rights are better protected in Gaza or in Tel Aviv?
JetBlue is reducing service at Washington’s National airport this winter. That’s one of only three airports in the country where the number of flights are limited by law, making it easier than in most places to make money.
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 »
