“American Airlines, under fire for poor customer-satisfaction ratings, said Monday it will add check-in and boarding services for top customers including those traveling in first-class or business-class”... Business Week Sep 22, 2008
American Airlines has purportedly just launched a new service, Priority AAcess, that will benefit:
•AAdvantage Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum members
•First and Business Class passengers
•Full Fare passengers
•AAirpass Passengers
Priority AAcess, which is set to begin this month, will provide guests with a special check-in gate, a special security line, and a priority “red” lane to board the aircraft ahead of everyone else. Further, if a priority guest arrives at the boarding gate during general boarding, he/she will still be able to cut the general boarding line.
Sounds great, right? The fact of the matter is... this is nothing new! The travelers whom Priority AAccess will benefit have received ALL of the perks of the program for years, EXCEPT the ability to cut the line if you arrive after boarding starts.
This program is great for American in that it makes them sound like they are doing something good for their guests, thereby potentially boosting their customer satisfaction rating and attracting positive press... even though they [American] really just added a name to existing services!
The next reason I feel they did this is that I can see this being used as a potential revenue generator in the new future. I’m going to predict that American begins charging for Priority AAccess in the near future; whether per flight, an annual subscription, or both. The airline industry is all about revenue generators in the current market, and this is just one more possibility in the making.
To make a long story short, there is absolutely nothing new about Priority AAcess. It’s a gimick that has got a fair amount of attention in the airline industry this week. Kudos to American.
Oh well, I’ll still be flying them 5 times next month!
Written By:
Alex Early
Founder & President
The Early Air Way, LLC
Showing posts with label American Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Airlines. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Brandon To Spend Millions To Block BA/AA Deal
British Airways and American Airlines have been linked together as members of the OneWorld Alliance since 1998, when the OneWorld Alliance was originally created. Unlike most airline partnership agreements however, American Airlines and British Airways have had special restrictions on their partnership within OneWorld due to potential Anti-Trust violations enforced by the BAA at London’s Heathrow Airport for flights to/from The United States, specifically.
Because of said anti-trust restrictions, for the past decade, American and British Airways have not been allowed grant any of their perks to the opposite airline’s members for flights across the Atlantic to/from the United States. For example, if an American Airlines AAdvantage member were flying from Los Angeles to London on British Airways, he/she would earn NO miles in his/her AAdvantage account whatsoever. This follows suit for mileage redemption and elite benefits as well.
Following the recent US/EU OpenSkies Act that has significantly reduced government restriction on the Trans Atlantic market, American and British Airways have been fighting to have their restrictions lifted. American and British Airways have chosen the optimal time to fight these restrictions because the current trend in that market is lifting age-old government restrictions.
Founder and CEO or Virgin Atlantic Airways, Richard Branson, has said that he is prepared to spend millions of dollars to prevent the tie-up between American Airlines and British Airways.
If American Airlines and British Airways do in fact have their anti-trust restriction lifted and are allowed to be true program partners, thus allowing them to offer perks to eachothers members, create codeshare flights, and share internal pricing information; they will jointly share a dominating market share for the Trans Atlantic segment to/from London. The combined operation will offer the most frequent flight schedule, easiest use of frequent flyer miles, and will hypothetically be able to control the pricing for the entire industry crossing the Atlantic to/from London. Naturally, this will undoubtably be felt by Virgin Atlantic’s balance sheet.
Written By:
Alex Early
Founder & President
The Early Air Way, LLC
Because of said anti-trust restrictions, for the past decade, American and British Airways have not been allowed grant any of their perks to the opposite airline’s members for flights across the Atlantic to/from the United States. For example, if an American Airlines AAdvantage member were flying from Los Angeles to London on British Airways, he/she would earn NO miles in his/her AAdvantage account whatsoever. This follows suit for mileage redemption and elite benefits as well.
Following the recent US/EU OpenSkies Act that has significantly reduced government restriction on the Trans Atlantic market, American and British Airways have been fighting to have their restrictions lifted. American and British Airways have chosen the optimal time to fight these restrictions because the current trend in that market is lifting age-old government restrictions.
Founder and CEO or Virgin Atlantic Airways, Richard Branson, has said that he is prepared to spend millions of dollars to prevent the tie-up between American Airlines and British Airways.
If American Airlines and British Airways do in fact have their anti-trust restriction lifted and are allowed to be true program partners, thus allowing them to offer perks to eachothers members, create codeshare flights, and share internal pricing information; they will jointly share a dominating market share for the Trans Atlantic segment to/from London. The combined operation will offer the most frequent flight schedule, easiest use of frequent flyer miles, and will hypothetically be able to control the pricing for the entire industry crossing the Atlantic to/from London. Naturally, this will undoubtably be felt by Virgin Atlantic’s balance sheet.
Written By:
Alex Early
Founder & President
The Early Air Way, LLC
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Possible Alliance between American, Continental, and British Airways
With the proposed merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines, both members of the SkyTeam Alliance, Continental Airlines, also a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, is reconsidering its future with the team.
Continental recently ended talks with United Airlines for a possible merger and said it would not pursue any combination with another airline right away. Continental’s Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Kellner said in a message to his employees that the airline would be better off without a merger:
"We have significant cultural, operational and financial strengths compared to the rest of the industry, and we want to protect and enhance those strengths -- which we believe would be placed at risk in a merger with another carrier in today's environment," Kellner told employees.
What Continental is considering however is an alliance with American Airlines, and possibly British Airways as well. With this, Continental would pull out of the SkyTeam alliance (as the new Delta will vastly outsize and outrank Continental), and join the OneWorld alliance.
The idea behind the alliance with American Airlines would provide many of the benefits of a merger such as cost mitigation by eliminating operations redundancy without many of the shortfalls such as the high cost of re-configuring aircraft, and the headaches of combining union staff.
Adding British Airways into the loop would give the trio a 60% market share of flights between London and the US. Because of this, the proposed alliance may encounter problems when trying to seek anti-trust immunity. American and British Airways have unsuccessfully sought immunity twice in the past, but the thought is that they have a greater chance now thanks to the recent US-EU Open Skies Act that granted such immunity to Delta, Northwest, and Air France- KLM, all SkyTeam members.
If the alliance were to go through, OneWorld would also have the majority market share of the New York area. American currently boasts a hub at John F. Kennedy Airport, as well as a dominant market share at LaGuardia. Continental dominates operations at Newark’s Liberty Airport. This New York domination would allow the carriers to drive up prices in the area, which could warrant anti-trust scrutiny from the DOJ.
The alliance would also mean the end of the codeshare and mileage earning agreements between Continental and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Next, restructuring of Continental’s OnePass loyalty program would most likely be necessary being that the program is currently not compatible with American’s AAdvantage program.
American’s top-tier level in the program, Executive Platinum, requires 100,000 flown miles in a calendar year, whereas Continental’s top-tier level, Platinum, requires only 75,000 miles. The requirements must be identical in order to provide fair benefits throughout the system. Continental also provides its complimentary upgrades in a very different manner than American. Continental’s system favors travelers who pay more for their tickets, whereas American’s favors travelers who book more in quantity and book in advance.
What I Think:
This merger would add value to the OneWorld network as many new non-stop routes will be available to OneWorld passengers. Anti-Trust approval will be difficult however because American and Contiental have overlapping hub-cities. New York will be dominated, as well as the Texas markets. American is based out of Dallas, and Continental is based out of Houston.
Adding so many more elites to the upgrade pool however, as well as Continental's rewards system that clearly values generated revenue over travel frequency, it just may become harder to redeem awards in the OneWorld system. Of course, this is one of the cost saving benefits the airlines will receive.
As an American Airlines passenger, I would look forward to being able to fly Continental's industry leading product in the OneWorld alliance.
Written By:
Alex Early
CEO
The Early Air Way, LLC
Continental recently ended talks with United Airlines for a possible merger and said it would not pursue any combination with another airline right away. Continental’s Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Kellner said in a message to his employees that the airline would be better off without a merger:
"We have significant cultural, operational and financial strengths compared to the rest of the industry, and we want to protect and enhance those strengths -- which we believe would be placed at risk in a merger with another carrier in today's environment," Kellner told employees.
What Continental is considering however is an alliance with American Airlines, and possibly British Airways as well. With this, Continental would pull out of the SkyTeam alliance (as the new Delta will vastly outsize and outrank Continental), and join the OneWorld alliance.
The idea behind the alliance with American Airlines would provide many of the benefits of a merger such as cost mitigation by eliminating operations redundancy without many of the shortfalls such as the high cost of re-configuring aircraft, and the headaches of combining union staff.
Adding British Airways into the loop would give the trio a 60% market share of flights between London and the US. Because of this, the proposed alliance may encounter problems when trying to seek anti-trust immunity. American and British Airways have unsuccessfully sought immunity twice in the past, but the thought is that they have a greater chance now thanks to the recent US-EU Open Skies Act that granted such immunity to Delta, Northwest, and Air France- KLM, all SkyTeam members.
If the alliance were to go through, OneWorld would also have the majority market share of the New York area. American currently boasts a hub at John F. Kennedy Airport, as well as a dominant market share at LaGuardia. Continental dominates operations at Newark’s Liberty Airport. This New York domination would allow the carriers to drive up prices in the area, which could warrant anti-trust scrutiny from the DOJ.
The alliance would also mean the end of the codeshare and mileage earning agreements between Continental and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Next, restructuring of Continental’s OnePass loyalty program would most likely be necessary being that the program is currently not compatible with American’s AAdvantage program.
American’s top-tier level in the program, Executive Platinum, requires 100,000 flown miles in a calendar year, whereas Continental’s top-tier level, Platinum, requires only 75,000 miles. The requirements must be identical in order to provide fair benefits throughout the system. Continental also provides its complimentary upgrades in a very different manner than American. Continental’s system favors travelers who pay more for their tickets, whereas American’s favors travelers who book more in quantity and book in advance.
What I Think:
This merger would add value to the OneWorld network as many new non-stop routes will be available to OneWorld passengers. Anti-Trust approval will be difficult however because American and Contiental have overlapping hub-cities. New York will be dominated, as well as the Texas markets. American is based out of Dallas, and Continental is based out of Houston.
Adding so many more elites to the upgrade pool however, as well as Continental's rewards system that clearly values generated revenue over travel frequency, it just may become harder to redeem awards in the OneWorld system. Of course, this is one of the cost saving benefits the airlines will receive.
As an American Airlines passenger, I would look forward to being able to fly Continental's industry leading product in the OneWorld alliance.
Written By:
Alex Early
CEO
The Early Air Way, LLC
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