During its first quarter earnings call, American Airlines was asked about the consumer benefits of the tie-up with JetBlue. And the airline also got questions about how JetBlue’s bid for Spirit Airlines would affect it’s ability to keep the JetBlue partnership, since the government opposes the arrangement and will have a say in JetBlue’s merger attempt as well.
American Airlines has focused like a laser on “D0” – exact on time departures – over nearly all other priorities. That hasn’t always made them a reliable airline, but it’s led to numerous dysfunctions.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom signaled in his first earnings call that he’s shifting the focus of the airline from this metric to a broader set of priorities that will operate reliably while also taking care of customers.
Iron Mike Tyson was once the ‘baddest man on the planet.’ Based on his behavior on a recent JetBlue flight, he’s still at least second behind Bill O’Reilly.
On Wednesday evening Tyson flew JetBlue from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. The man sitting behind him in business class wouldn’t stop talking with him. It began with Tyson agreeing to take a selfie, but when passengers wouldn’t leave him alone Tyson let them know he’d have enough.
This represents innovative thinking on the part of American to balance their desire for a top shelf product (business class suites with doors on a narrowbody aircraft) without taking up a lot of real estate on the plane
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The Justice Department has begun it’s slow-walk of a half-hearted defense of the rule. They’ve filed a notice of appeal with the District Court. Here’s the entirety of the filing.
Most punishments in American society aren’t permanent. And I wouldn’t expect any airline to re-instate a passenger who treated any “[c]rew members..[as] literal punching bags.” On the other hand a family banned over a maskless two year old? That’s likely to be a different story.
The CDC and the Administration has bungled this. They should have taken the win of having the mandate end without their having to end it. Now the best they can do is file an appeal, without having the order stayed, and then let the appeal become moot with the expiration of the rule. Worse would be to litigate this aggressively with the ensuing chaos of trying to re-impose the mandate.
Now that U.S. mask requirements on planes have generally been lifted, some people are starting to realize that not all restrictions are permanent and that at a minimum we should be doing cost-benefit analysis … and that much of the security theater we engage in wouldn’t pass critical scrutiny.
My dog ate my homework, I have a secret identity and had to fight crime, I was surfing the crimson wave.
Those classic excuses weren’t nearly creative enough for a Tampa airport TSA employee running late for work.
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 »
