Tag Archives for delta.
The takeaway from the IdeaWorks study is that overall airlines have been making more economy award seats available at lower prices, although not all airlines do a good job at this. Here’s who’s best.
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.
Domestically Delta works to earn a revenue premium by leveraging its two advantages: non-union mechanics and front line employees. Delta’s TechOps drive an on-time operation less likely to cancel flights, and acts as a profit center doing maintenance for other carriers. Delta customer service is generally friendlier than competitors. However the U.S. market is mature and domestic aviation is not a growth business.
Delta owns stakes in Aeromexico, China Eastern, Gol, Air France KLM and Virgin Atlantic. These investments both help Delta align the interests of those carriers with their own, and diversify their exposure beyond the U.S. market.
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.
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.
American Airlines is running all of its Europe and deep South America flights from New York JFK with Boeing 777s. That’s too much capacity even for a joint venture partner’s hub like Madrid (Iberia). They really ought to be basing some smaller aircraft, like Boeing 787s, out of New York and serving more destinations profitably.
During peak summer months and during fall and winter holidays there’s often fare compression, business class tickets go down in price (especially for restricted fares that leisure flyers can buy) while coach gets more expensive. We’re certainly seeing that on American’s New York JFK – Madrid route, where they’re discounting business class. For about the same money you can also fly their partner Iberia’s business class non-stop as well.
We all know the usual tropes, like ‘there are only two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost’ and that someone who checks a bag for a trip every week is spending at least 2 days a year at baggage claim. Checking bags is something you want to avoid if you possibly can.
Here’s how to avoid being forced to gate check a bag when the contents inside are too important to risk.
On Monday I wrote about an incident of American Airlines serving 16 month old food on a Dallas Fort-Worth – London flight. That’s, apparently, within the industry norm. United says they’ll serve food up to 6 months after it’s been frozen. Delta says they don’t usually have food sitting this long but it can be up to 12 months.
A simple set of recommendations, all within reach and none unprecedented, could make American Airlines not just the largest in the U.S. but also the best: improve the operation, improve the domestic premium product, offer reasonable award availability to sustain the driver of the airline’s profitability and compete in the most important markets.
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 »
