On this morning’s American Airlines earnings call, still ongoing, Chairman and CEO Doug Parker opened saying he wasn’t going to comment on recent moves in their stock.
Their stock has been rising with 29% of its float currently shorted and worldwide attention being paid to GameStop.
American is ‘evaluating’ whether these trial meal boxes will be rolled out more broadly. Over the summer employees were told we wouldn’t see a return of first class meals as they used to be, but hopefully this isn’t all there will be for awhile. What do you think?
Ghana’s aviation ministry is continuing the long tradition of African governments complaining about British Airways. This time they’re unhappy that BA plans to operate its Accra flight to London’s Gatwick airport instead of Heathrow. And they are threatening ‘reciprocal action’ against the airline in response.
There are fewer of these passengers today, with borders closed and testing requirements in place. Furthermore there’s very little international business travel. And frequent flyers with club memberships have been flying less as well.
So the real fight is for leisure passengers, many of whom haven’t been frequent flyers, and they’re mostly traveling to close-in destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico. And American is expanding airport club lounge access as a result.
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 U.S. is now considering requiring testing not just for international travel back to the U.S. but for domestic travel as well.
There may have been merit in this a year ago. Now it’s unlikely to make a big difference. Both in the past, and now, the challenge for effectiveness is availability of cheap widespread at-home tests that people can take every day.
I am an advocate of following the rules of a program that you’ve agreed to, and I counsel against selling points and miles because the risks involved generally aren’t worth it (cancelled tickets, shut down accounts, ban from the airline).
In the case of a carrier that shut down its transatlantic operation, that a customer doesn’t intend to fly again, I’m not so sure that taking a haircut on the value of these points to get something out of them isn’t the worst strategy. What do you think?
a memo has gone out from American Airlines to travel agents, available on its SalesLink platform warning them that the carrier is cracking down on a variety of ticketing techniques, including hidden city ticketing and ‘churning’.
Over the summer I wrote about American directly investigating customers for ticketing practices that violate the airline’s rules, and more recently confronting customers at the airport and demanding passengers pay up for their past sins against the airline. Now they’re warning tagents.
Travel brands are offering Covid-19 testing in order to adapt to the current reality, born out of desperation to win business from Americans in the face of new travel requirements. And it’s a reason crew exemptions are concerning – airlines should be able to adapt too.
In fact I’m told that United Airlines is scheduling U.K.-based crew to work London – Newark – Mumbai – Newark – London, London – Chicago – Delhi – Chicago – London, and London – Washington DC – London. This is roughly 80 UK-based crew entering the US every day exempt from the CDC’s new testing requirement, with the UK one of the epicenters of a new SARS-CoV-2 mutation of concern.
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.
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 »
