What Lawsuits Between The Points Guy And American Airlines Are All About

by Gary Leff

Jan 24 2022

TPG isn’t on the side of angels here, they’re both fighting over consumer eyeballs, but the service that others like TPG are providing can be a net positive. And unquestionably companies have taken enforcement of computer access laws way too far.

What American should have done was insist on a stake in the product. Award Wallet, for instance, has hundreds of thousands of airline elite customers in their database….. including the customers of American’s competitors. The smart move would be to market to those competitors’ customers, negotiated in exchange for access.

Continue Reading »

Passenger Violates American Airlines Rules By Wearing A Space Helmet

by Gary Leff

Jan 23 2022

A woman sitting at near gate E6 for American Airlines flight AA6151 from Charlotte to Fayetteville, North Carolina on Tuesday was wearing a ‘space helmet’ over her mask. Since there don’t appear to be ear loops on the mask, it looks like an N95. That won’t be comfortable on a Piedmont Airlines Embraer ERJ-145 50 seat jet, but it’s just a 118 mile flight. It’s unclear where she may have been connecting from.

Continue Reading »

Business Travel Won’t Return Until Mask Mandates No Longer Needed

by Gary Leff

Jan 22 2022

Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker made a point in his opening remarks to employees after completing the carrier’s fourth quarter earnings call this past Thursday. His remarks suggested that masks are an impediment to the return of business travel. The full return to normal is therefore going to necessarily involve lifting masking requirements.

Continue Reading »

When Will China Re-Open Air Travel? Probably Not For A Year

by Gary Leff

temple
Jan 22 2022

President Xi Jinping seeks an unprecedented third term at the country’s 2022 party congress. It’s this upcoming solidification of his power that, in part, makes the nation cautious of missteps. It can’t risk a blunder like an invasion of Taiwan that goes badly. And it can’t risk losing face by losing control of Covid-19.

After all, China lacks significant background immunity to the virus due to low levels of prior infection and homegrown vaccines that didn’t work well even against ancestral strains of the virus. So it’s not surprising that international flights to China remain down 95% compared to before the pandemic as they attempt to control entry of the virus.

Continue Reading »

After Kicking Off Maskless 2 Year Old, American Flight Attendant Threatens Complaining Passenger

by Gary Leff

Jan 22 2022

On Wednesday’s American Airlines flight AA3573 from Key West to Miami, passengers missed connections after a 40 minute delay caused by a flight attendant kicking off a mother and her crying two year old who wouldn’t keep their mask on.

The whole planeload of passengers was offloaded, and when another passenger expressed frustration the flight attendant threatened to have her kicked off too for ‘smelling like alcohol’. On a 7 a.m. flight. Where both that passenger and flight attendant were wearing masks. The American Airlines slogan is caring for people on life’s journey.

Continue Reading »