American Airlines followed United Airlines with its elimination of change fees on domestic and short haul international flights, excluding for customers who purchase basic economy fares. Packaged in with that change was allowing free standby travel for everyone.
There’s still a benefit to being an elite frequent flyer when it comes to standing by for another flight on American Airlines, however, and it’s not just having higher priority on the standby list.
A mission statement has been clearly missing from American Airlines. At times management has seemed confused over whether they’re trying to be a low cost carrier or a premium airline, and flight crew have been confused over what kind of service they’re supposed to be delivering
Last week, though, Doug Parker delivered his vision to employees for where he believes the airline can be over the next 3-5 years – the beginning of a true mission, perhaps.
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.
Shortly after US Airways management took over at American Airlines, award tickets – especially in premium cabins internationally – because much harder to get. Then at the beginning of 2017 American eliminated most confirmed domestic upgrade space.
Now they’re making another change to how upgrade inventory is managed. Just because the upgrade inventory buckets (A,C) show availability doesn’t mean an upgrade will be available.
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.
At the beginning of October American Airlines quietly took away access to extra legroom seating from partner airline elite members.
The airline has partially reversed course for some – but not all – of its joint venture partners, leading to some hope that the seating benefit could become available to Alaska and JetBlue elites as well.
Southwest Airlines has tons of cash, not a lot of debt, and a new view on economics of on-time performance. They’re not rushing back the 737 MAX. And they shared interesting data on the financial performance of Rapid Rewards, how business travel is doing, and explained the financial reason blocking middle seats made sense before but no longer does.
After 50 years committed to Boeing, Southwest Airlines said on its third quarter earnings call that if there was ever a time to consider buying non-Boeing aircraft it would be now. They aren’t growth constrained. They have plenty of unused and underutilized aircraft in their fleet. And that gives them the space and time to transition to a new aircraft.
American Airlines held its third quarter earnings call this morning. There were several news items included today beyond just the airline’s financial performance. And there was a greater-than-normal amount of ‘color’ on the airline’s strategy going forward.
Customers often don’t like it. It isn’t something that should be done before 8 a.m. or in the morning prior to arrival at the end of a redeye. But ultimately the people most likely to take an airline’s credit card are the people who are actually already flying the airline.
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 »
