The Best And Worst U.S. Airlines Of 2022, Objectively Ranked. Where Does Your Favorite Stand?

by Gary Leff

Jan 18 2023

Delta is back on top. Perennial strong competitor Alaska is right behind though they had numerous operational problems. Southwest comes in third – even though they completely failed over the holidays (recency bias!) and their on-time performance frequently lags with shorter turn times for aircraft. JetBlue is consistently an operational mess, here worse than Spirit and Frontier.

While I expect Delta to tout its win, note the subheading is “No one airline had a particularly good year.”

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Delta Announces Two New New York JFK Clubs, Including First Dedicated Business Lounge

by Gary Leff

Jan 17 2023

With the closure of New York JFK terminal 2 last week, Delta has consolidated its operations in terminal 4. Since that terminal was already crowded – it features the longest lines to get into any Sky Club – that didn’t seem like a positive for customers.

Fortunately relief is on the way for those accessing the Delta club at New York JFK, and not just because the airline is banning employees from using their lounges and charging more for memberships, banning non-elite customers from buying them, taking away access from elites flying coach on international trips and from club members who are flying on basic economy tickets.

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Why Do Hotel Chains Have So Many Brands?

by Gary Leff

brands
Jan 17 2023

Whenever a hotel chain adds a brand, like Marriott’s bringing on City Express as their 31st brand or Hilton launching Spark – a cheaper version of Hampton Inn, with splashes of light purple! – consumers react with confusion. How can we possibly need more hotel brands? Don’t the big chains already have more than enough?

Customers simply do not know which hotel brands are part of which chains, or what each brand stands for. This confusion must mean there are too many brands, yet brands continue to expand which must mean chains must believe doing this is profitable. After all, more brands means being able to open more hotels and attract more developers and owners.

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