United Airlines Now Offers First Class Passengers Two Ways Not To Eat

by Gary Leff

Jan 19 2023

Delta lets passengers choose in advance the option to skip a meal, and save the airline money. Japan Airlines even suggests that doing so is a moral imperative.

This is a trend sweeping the industry, reducing food cost by getting passengers to pre-committing not to eat. United is a part of it too, and they are offering customers more than one choice now to nudge them not to eat. Both of these options that appear when pre-ordering mean the same thing, United can spend less on catering.

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American Airlines Promises Flight Attendants A Free Bowl Of Chili If They Don’t Picket Next Week

by Gary Leff

Jan 18 2023

On January 24th, American Airlines flight attendants will be conducting ‘informational picketing’ at the airline’s hubs and also in Boston and San Francisco. They’re unhappy with the time it’s taken to get a new contract, and that American Airlines flat out rejects many of the changes to work rules their union proposes.

American, for its part, has been telling cabin crew that on the same day as the picketing they’ll be serving free chili inside the airport instead.

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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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