On CNBC this morning United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said he likes that pilot wages are going up, which is really saying he likes pilot shortages, because of what that does to competitors. Low cost carriers can’t hire pilots cheap, eroding their relative cost advantage against United.
He also revealed something interesting about business travel: it’s not continuing its recovery, and specifically that it has “plateaued”.
You’d think an operation called Alaska Airlines would be able to handle cooler temperatures but they’re misdirecting so many bags they’re unwilling to honor their on-time bag delivery guarantee.
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.
The CEO of Bahrain-based Gulf Air says the carrier will launch direct flights to the U.S. within 3 years. We can expect that new Gulf Air service to the U.S. to be on Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
The airline’s CEO describes himself as being on a mission to deliver a quality product as a path towards profits because his smaller airline can’t compete on network scale and it cannot compete on price either.
American Airlines was showing that basic economy fares didn’t include a carry on bag to some customers checking in, though they hadn’t updated their website or made any announcement to this effect.
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.
A passenger on a train in China reclined their seat without telling the person behind them they were going to do so. The seat reclined into the passenger’s laptop, damaging the screen. That passenger sued – and won $475.
This is actually not all that uncommon, for instance here’s a cracked screen from a reclining seat in Delta Air Lines economy.
The federal government has ‘no fly’ and ‘enhanced screening’ lists, where they check the names of passengers and decide under what conditions someone is allowed to travel, if at all. It’s a form of pre-crime profiling where people have been added to the list by mistake, for revenge, or for any number of reasons that you aren’t allowed to know. The government claims it’s exempt from judicial review.
This process is meaningless, though, if people can change the name they fly under. So in 2005 Congress passed requirements for IDs that are harder to fake. Since then, however, rules requiring people to actually have a ‘REAL ID’ have been kicked down the road.
Hertz announced a $168 million settlement covering 364 claims against them, at an average of just over $460,000 per customer.
There are perhaps a dozen more customers who are suing Hertz, that are not a part of the settlement. I have to think that in many of those cases the customers believe the egregiousness of their experience warrants a greater cash payout and that it makes sense to get closer to trial.
Artificial intelligence has seen real breakthroughs. I don’t think we fully grasp yet just how far the science has come. But millions of people are getting their first self-aware glimpse via the free AI Chatbot. To be sure, much of our interactions with our phone and Google involve AI. And Tesla and Amazon have some pretty impressive projects. But does it really hit home until you have the ability to auto-generate a rap battle between airlines in under a second?
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 »
