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British Airways, Cathay Pacific and oneworld Have Found a New Way to Screw Customers

Jun 11 2016

The oneworld alliance no longer requires to through-check luggage onto partner airlines when passengers are traveling on more than one reservation.

Cathay Pacific has announced that they are not only ending through-checked luggage on separate reservations, they are going a step further and will no longer provide protection during irregular operations to passengers traveling on two different reservations.

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Two Senators Think Airlines Can Fix Security Lines By Eliminating Checked Bag Fees

May 11 2016

Two US Senators — Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal — want airlines to drop checked bag fees for the summer to reduce TSA checkpoint lines.

The idea is that passengers would be willing to check bags if they didn’t have to pay to do so, and lines would be shorter at security checkpoints with fewer bags to be screened there. I’d point out three things, however.

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Senate Bill Will Require Airlines to Refund Checked Bag Fees if the Airline Loses Your Bag

Apr 15 2016

About 8 years ago airlines started charging for checked bags that they used to transport as part of a ticket.

In addition to whatever incremental revenue they may earn from doing so, they discovered a huge incentive in tax arbitrage: the more money they move out of “the ticket” (which is subject to a 7.5% excise tax) and into “ancillary revenue” (which is not subject to this tax) the better off they are financially. Roughly speaking each of the largest US airlines is pocketing $50 million a year in tax savings by charging you for checked bags.

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How Real Airline Hospitality Can Make Flying a Regional Jet Feel Special

Mar 05 2016

Yesterday I flew United Express from Austin to Denver. It was a Canadair CRJ-700 operated by GoJet. Katarina was working the first class cabin. She’s been flying for only a month, and has probably worked about 50 flights. She’s still finding her confidence making inflight announcements. But she hustled, and she showed real care for her passengers.

And that made me think of Jenna. United CEO Oscar Munoz, a month in to the job and before taking medical leave, was traveling the United system on something of a mystery tour. And he was telling the story of a flight attendant he had come across.

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How American is Thinking About What Really Matters to Customers

Jan 29 2016

The things that were most interesting to me about American’s earnings call weren’t falling airfares and weakness in South America market; the Zika virus; or American’s record profits, whether it’s fair to say that they had the most profits of any airline in history (or whether Delta ‘excluding employee profit sharing’ is higher, since of course those are wages and as Doug Parker pointed out the difference in profits between the airlines is Delta’s big losses on fuel hedging, something American doesn’t do).

The audience for the earnings call was mostly financial analysts. American was getting beaten up on, despite its profits and margins, for low fares. The critique was, why don’t they do more, actively manage to find ways to keep more of the cost savings from lower fuel? However there’s always some important tidbits that matter from a customer perspective, and to understand the direction the airline is going and what matters to its leadership. So here’s what was most interesting to me, that will be a different emphasis from mainstream financial reports on the call:

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25% Off Delta Awards to London, and Why Economy Awards are Such a Bad Deal

Jan 11 2016

One of the awards that hasn’t changed in price for travel October 1 onwards is US – Europe roundtrip.

Despite Delta making unannounced changes to their secret award chart, US – Europe in economy remains 60,000 miles roundtrip.

There does seem to be a pattern when the airline faces bad news coverage over SkyMiles changes that they then offer an award sale.

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