American Airlines is joining a bandwagon of carriers making big upgrades to economy class buy-on-board menus. American being American, the new food must be a marketing opportunity. Last week I wrote about how airlines are turning cabins into experiential marketing nests, and American’s latest announcement plays right into that ethos. Conveniently, the airline is also…
Ryanair, the European discount carrier often cited as the world’s most-loathed by customers, has built its entire business out of charging airline passengers for just about every damn thing. But get this, the four big U.S. airlines are now beating Ryanair at its own game. American, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines all collected incometotal fee…
In marketing, the power of a captive audience is incredibly valuable. Distractions on-the-ground abound, and capturing shorter attention spans are becoming increasingly difficult. Having a product next to, or on, a potential customer who has no choice but to sit in a seat for hours is a golden opportunity. The Five Senses Onboard Let’s break…
There have been a few headlines about the American Airlines CEO threatening to end flight changes and cancellations on non-refundable tickets. Disregard, there are much bigger forces at play. Congress is considering a cap that would limit fees that airlines can charge passengers to change tickets. This is significant in two ways. It would be…
This is the future. Starting later this year, your face will be all you need to catch an international flight at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Delta Air Lines sent out a news release Thursday about end-to-end biometric facial recognition that will allow passengers to access all parts of the airport, and board flights, using just their face.…
Every airline blog has covered American Airlines’ tortured new Boeing 737 ad nauseam. The tiny lavatories have been mocked from major news outlets to late night talk shows. The prevailing narrative: American’s newest 737s, the “MAX 8”, are about as customer friendly as a DMV office. Are these brand new airplanes really so bad? I…
This is embarrassing. Actually, quite embarrassing. Cathay Pacific just misspelled its own name, and not on some piece of in-flight literature. This typo is plastered on the side of a Boeing 777: “Cathay Paciic”. It’s not clear how or why this happened. Cathay fessed up to the error on its own Twitter account. Oops this…
Copa Airlines will become the first interamerican airline to put lie-flat business class seats on Boeing 737s. In plans and seat maps for its forthcoming Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets, Copa is depicting B/E Diamond flat bed seats. The new seats are advertised as “Dreams Business Class”. This could make flat bed seats available on…
Delta Air Lines scored a particularly early arrival this month. Not only is Delta’s newest plane nearly six months early off the assembly line, the airline also appears to have one nearly ready to enter service. The airline’s news hub posted a video of a brand new Airbus A220 undergoing livery painting. A Flickr photograph…
Boeing rolled out the first fully assembled 777X aircraft at its factory in Everett, Washington this month. The latest and greatest from Boeing isn’t scheduled to be delivered to launch customers until early 2020. However, Boeing is in full-scale prep mode, and its first 777X off the line is almost fully functional—minus an engine and…
