Tag Archives for qatar airways.
Delta immediately turned the tables on US-Latin America flying by announcing plans to take a 20% stake in LATAM, South America’s largest airline. Delta is pulling them out of oneworld and out of a pending joint venture with American Airlines.
One side benefit that must have been sweet for Delta, though has gone largely unremarked upon, is the extra benefit that comes from sticking it to Qatar Airways. Now Qatar is trolling Delta back.
Airlines were ranked for their cleanliness based on traveler feedback across five areas: seating, toilets, tables, carpets, and cabin panels.
I always marvel at ANA for its cleanliness, down to flight attendants cleaning lavatories continuously throughout long haul flights.
In October Qatar Airways threatened to leave the oneworld alliance, a threat that their CEO Akbar al-Baker has repeated several times.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker was asked about his plans to stay or leave oneworld and he’s indicated that they’ll announce a decision in a month or two.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker promised a “revolutionary” economy seat. And that would be hard to do for an airline whose CEO has already claimed in the past that they don’t need to offer premium economy — because their economy product is already premium economy.
Several weeks ago I wrote that Qatar Airways will sell access to their incredible Al Safwa first class lounge in Doha for just $69. It turns out this is being offered to passengers on awards, too.
American Airlines Group is earning a profit, albeit less than the minimum CEO Doug Parker promised they’d ever see. Whether or not they’ll ever lose money again though hinges on the success of their frequent flyer program — and whether they can recognize they aren’t offering a flight product that customers want to pay a premium for.
Truly Akbar al-Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, is a man for our times.
The great thing about Akbar al-Baker, and his access to the Al Thani pocketbook, is that when he wants to troll another airline CEO he can do it with a half billion dollar investment.
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.
Two months ago Qatar Airways threatened to leave the oneworld alliance, a threat that their CEO Akbar al-Baker has repeated several times.
Qatar’s CEO did not attend the alliance’s annual meeting in New York where their existing partner Royal Air Maroc announced its pending entry into oneworld. Any exit would logically have been announced at that meeting, though Qatar has mentioned a Christmas deadline for a decision.
Last year Qatar’s CEO said that on “crap American carriers” you’ll “always be served by grandmothers.”
He’s the new Chairman of IATA, the International Air Transport Association which represents over 275 airlines in more than 110 countries. And he didn’t waste much time causing controversy with his (offensive) remarks — immediately after vowing not to.
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 »
