This Week’s Featured Link
Airlines Should Not Have It Both Ways – Travel Market Report
This piece continues the discussion about whether American’s contract of carriage change is a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a thoughtful article, but I think most of those with criticism have been missing a key point. Yes, there is a single sliver of the contract that says the sole obligation is to give you your money back if a flight is delayed more than 4 hours. But that is meant to apply to additional financial liability. Elsewhere it very clearly states that they will put you on another flight on American or a partner airline. Clearly American’s attempt to make this more clear hasn’t worked, because people seem to be misunderstanding.
Image of the Week
Two for the Road
Activision Blizzard Hires Senior Executives from Disney and Delta – Activision Blizzard News
Delta’s SVP of Rev Mgmt is going to Activision Blizzard to be a Chief Commercial Officer. Delta is about 5x larger in terms of revenues, but how much you want to bet the salaries at Delta are a whole lot less? And Delta can’t even try to become competitive if it wanted, thanks to the rules that US govt has put into place for those who took the PSP money.
A dad’s wave from the ramp sends daughter on her way, every flight – Delta News Hub
Let’s just end things this week with a heartwarming tale. Next time you fly Delta from DFW, give her dad a wave as well.
21 comments on “3 Links I Love: American’s Contract, Sexy Saudia, and a Double Dip of Delta”
> Delta can’t even try to become competitive if it wanted, thanks to the rules that US govt has put into place
> for those who took the PSP money
Delta was not required to take the money. They chose to do that.
That story about the dad and his daughter. That made my day. He loves his baby girl and she will always be his baby girl. As the father of a young girl myself, whom I adore and admittedly sometimes spoil, I can totally relate.
@Matt D I loved that piece too. A parents’ love for their children is boundless.
Re: the COC article:
Quote: “As a travel advisor, you are not, of course, expected to explain all elements of the Contract of Carriage to every traveler you book. Doing so would consume too much time, serve mainly to confuse the average traveler, and lead to a great many “thanks, but I think I won’t be flying this time” conversation stoppers.”
-unquote
That tells you all you need to know right there. When transparency could or would result in a substantial loss of business, that in and of itself raises all kinds of questions. And none that the airlines would like to answer,
It’s precisely the kind of thing that invites more Congressional scrutiny and laws.
The airlines biggest enemy is themselves.
For those that are so busy criticizing American et al and demanding Congressional action , I have a question.
How much more are you willing to pay for airfares? What you are asking for costs money. YOURSELF money.
So many people do not understand the realities of the air transport business. They want 36 inch perch, free bags, free meals and drinks, and they want the airline to put them up in a nice hotel and pay money for food even if it’s due to weather or other issues.
And they want all of this at Spirit prices.
You get what you pay for people.
We are not asking for all those things. We are just asking for the airlines to take reasonable actions to provide us with the transportation we paid for and to not leave us stranded with no option other than to pay many times our original fare.
This is a service the legacies have traditionally provided, and some still do.
Cranky is right to point out that people are overreacting to parts of the new contract, but limiting reaccommodation to partners (which is undefined) could be a major degradation of what AA has offered in the past and what the other legacies offer.
Aliqout – To be clear, limiting to partners has been American’s policy for some time now. I didn’t like it when the policy changed, but that was long before they touched the CoC.
When did it change? I know they had become more resistant to doing this, but they did this twice for me in the month before the pandemic. (Once to UA and once to KL)
Barowsky – I don’t know exactly when, but this isn’t a prohibition on doing it. It’s just the base minimum that will be provided. In policy, AA will put high level elites on any airline if needed. Even regular travelers can be put on other airlines either with the supervisor’s discretion or after a certain period of time. There is nothing in here that says American won’t do it.
Of course they can do more if they like, but they are promising less than other carriers who don’t limit there rebooking to partners.
What “reasonable actions” are you looking for, and how much more in fares are you willing to pay for them?
Nothing is free. What are you willing to pay?
I want them to do what they have done in the past and what other legacies still promise to do in their contracts, not refuse to rebook on non partners when waiting for a partner flight means a significant delay.
Assuming they aren’t going to scrap their interline agreements the cost of doing this is low, because in theory they passengers they put on other airlines will be balanced by the passengers those airlines put on their flights.
Again, how much more in airfare are you willing to pay for that?
Nothing is free.
Your question vastly oversimplifies. As you know there is no simple answer to that question.
How about asking how much this costs AA? Passengers transfered to is roughly equal to passengers transfered from. When that equation fails the system falls apart and it starts adversely affecting the airline accepting more passengers than they are giving (seats that could have been sold at the last minute are now full). This is what happened when DL briefly stopped accepting AA passengers, because AA’s poor performance meant they were accepting more AA passengers than they were giving to AA. Thankfully that was worked out.
There is a cost to maintaining interline agreements.
Interline reebooking was offered during a time of record low airfares and high profits for the airlines, so I don’t think it’s a huge money sink.
People obviously pay more everyday to fly one airline over another. I would pay a substantial amount more to not fly NK or G4, and a small amount to fly a legacy over WN, and a small amount to fly AS over a different legacy.
The more AA cuts the “extras” the less extra people will be willing to pay to fly them over NK.
Interlining in extreme situations is one reason I am willing to pay a little more to fly AA, along with a chance of an upgrade, and the AS miles.
Price hasn’t been my bottom line since I flew FAI-ANC-PIT-CMH-RDU-NYC because it was $100 cheaper than FAI-SEA-NYC in the 90’s.
You may be more willing to pay extra but most people aren’t. That’s the issue, and it’s driving these changes. American, Delta et al have to squeeze seats and cut services so they can match fares where needed.
In any case they are saying that they may choose to rebook you on another airline but they don’t HAVE to do so.
In a very busy time another airline is not going to give away cheap seats to American for inter line stuff, so it’s going to cost them…and in the end, you.
Again, people want dirt cheap fares but complain when service matches that. It’s like if they went into McDonalds and complained because the service and quality didn’t match a high end steakhouse.
No it’s not like going into McDonald’s and getting what everyone expects from a McDonald’s. It’s like paying for a McDonald’s meal and then suddenly being told the only option to eat is to get your money back and take it to Burger King where they will charge you 10 times as much as the would have if you initially went to Burger King in the first place.
Or it’d like going to a steakhouse and paying the same price you always have and getting served McDonald’s.
Barowsky, you think you are getting steak at McDonald’s prices, that’s the problem.
It may have used to be a steakhouse years ago, but now it’s a Sizzler or Golden Corral. You get what you pay for, and all the other customers only want to pay for Sizzler quality.
Keep in mind that Blizzard is undergoing a pretty bad sexual harassment / sexism lawsuit. So the job is a mess to walk into for a senior executive.
Cranky,
Why can’t there be a summary with only bullet points that state what the Contract of Carriage does or doesn’t do?
Angry Bob – Great question. This is in much more normal language than most. If you go through the international one, you’ll see just how unfriendly and complex it was. But I’m sure this is probably as far as they could push the legal department. I really don’t know.