How Airlines Choose To Make Upgrades Available, And Why One Airline Can Do Better

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines plane
Sep 06 2020

Here’s how airlines decide to make confirmable upgrade space available. They project how many first class seats they may sell in the cabin, and leave a buffer.

Seats that they know won’t be sold for cash might be given away as upgrades – but they also want to make sure that frequent flyers don’t confirm upgrades instead of paying cash so they’ll limit upgrades even still (often to when first class seats are available inexpensively – then the revenue tradeoff isn’t great, and the temptation not to pay cash is small).

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Police Caught On Video Extorting Tourist In Bali

by Gary Leff

Sep 06 2020

In a video shot last year, that only recently went viral, Bali police officers are videotaped extorting a Japanese tourist.

The visitor was driving a motorbike without its headlights on, which is required both day and night in Indonesia. The maximum fine is less than US$7. However the officers demand one million Indonesian Rupees in cash (about ten times the maximum fine). Since the man didn’t have that much, they haggled and accepted a lower amount. And by the way the officers who approached him aren’t even traffic cops.

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Southwest Airlines Fires A Shot At American Airlines In Miami

by Gary Leff

Sep 05 2020

What makes Miami surprising is that it’s the type of market the ‘old Southwest’ would never have entered. They already have a huge operation in Fort Lauderdale, and a smaller one at West Palm Beach and while they aren’t exactly the same markets there’s huge overlap. Southwest always favored the less expensive airports, and avoided congested business hubs.

Miami is one of the more expensive airports to operate from in the U.S. This was, if not an explicit policy of pre-merger American Airlines to drive up airport costs, something that their management sat by and was ok with happening – because it chased all the low cost carriers to Fort Lauderdale. That’s changing.

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Passenger Who Handed ‘Worst Note Ever’ To Flight Attendant Has Been Banned By American Airlines

by Gary Leff

Sep 04 2020

The note a disgruntled passenger passed to an American Airlines flight attendant has gone viral. In the note, the passenger objected to being told their mask had to cover their nose and called the crewmember “a glorified MAID” a “mask nazi” who should be “cleaning motel rooms for $2 tips and meth” and that her life is “a waste.”

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The Real Reason Airlines Eliminated Domestic Change Fees

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Sep 04 2020

The change isn’t about being ‘customer friendly’ and it wasn’t about share shift – which won’t happen, because major airlines quickly matched each other on this – it’s about modernizing the pricing model and getting rid of a tool that wasn’t relevant anymore, while at the same time making those non-basic economy fares more attractive to less price-sensitive buyers.

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