To redeem a paper voucher on American Airlines, you must call the airline's 1-800 number, where — on one day last week — you might wait 50 minutes for an agent to answer. When she picked up, you would explain your situation. You cancelled a refundable ticket last year, and wanted to use it to pay for another trip. The cheery agent would take your information, ask which flight you wanted to book, and issue a new confirmation number. But it did not end there. She would then spend a minute giving instructions. You would mail the voucher to an address in Pensacola, Florida, including a paper with your name, date of travel, and flight number. On the envelope, under your return address, you would write your travel date. That information would help American decide how quickly to open your mail. And while American was saving space on your preferred flight, it would not ticket the reservation until a human processed the paperwork. You then learned you someday would do this again. Because you hadn't used the entire voucher, you discovered American would mail you a new one with the residual amount. Redeeming it would require the same process. This happened to me last week. I'm a sophisticated traveler and even I was shocked at this time warp to 1985. How can American still rely on paper vouchers? I called American to find out. I learned American uses electronic vouchers for customer service issues — if, for example, your business class seat is broken, it might give you a certificate you can redeem online — but for most ticket exchanges, paper is still used. Travelers can, in some cases, have credit returned to the original form of payment, but I hadn't selected that option. I asked American spokesman Ross Feinstein why this is such a time-intensive process. Most other airlines now have electronic vouchers. I learned American would like to copy its competitors, but since its merger with US Airways in 2013, the world's largest airline has prioritized other IT projects. It just recently started allowing customers to rebook themselves on the mobile app during irregular operations — functionality Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have had for a long time. "We know this is not a great experience for customers," Feinstein said. "This is on a priority list to get done. We plan to focus on it in 2018." Are you surprised American still uses paper? Do you think this is a disservice to customers? And how time-consuming do you think this process is for American employees? Let me know your thoughts by sending me an email — bss@skift.com — or a tweet. I'm @briansumers. — Brian Sumers, Airline Business Reporter |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A little more than two years ago, with considerable promotional flair, United Airlines announced plans to fly from San Francisco to Xi'an, a city in interior China with more than eight million residents.
No U.S. airline had ever flown there, and it wasn't clear if a market existed. But this was part of a long-term bet for United. In 2000, with a San Francisco-Shanghai route, it had been the second U.S. airline to fly from North America to China nonstop — Northwest Airlines had been the first in 1996 —and over time United's China franchise has became a major strength for the carrier. An early investment paid dividends.
Under Brian Znotins, who ran United's network from 2012 to 2016, United emphasized secondary Chinese cities, adding Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xi'an, all from San Francisco. Znotins wanted United to get in early, betting the routes eventually would become money-makers, even if they didn't start that way. "It's still a huge, hot economy," he told the Wall Street Journal in May 2016. "The middle class is really booming. And the secondary cities are the growth engine."
Now, with United's network under new management, the airline is altering its strategy. Last week, it told employees it will cut Xi'an, which it had flown three times per week from May through October.
"Corporate traffic between SFO and XIY has not increased as fast as originally forecast," United told employees. "After careful analysis, we determined this route is not currently meeting our expectations and is no longer sustainable."
This news comes after United stopped flying to Hangzhou in October for similar reasons, leaving only Chengdu. It may remain — anecdotally, we hear it's a better performer than the others — but it sounds like United's secondary China strategy is over.
United might be more focused on tried-and-true routes — it is apparently considering new routes from Los Angeles and Denver to Frankfurt — over long-term plays. (Asked about the possibility of the two new Frankfurt routes, a United spokesman said, "We are always looking at new opportunities in markets that make most business sense.")
Znotins could get another chance. He now runs the network for Calgary-based WestJet, which will take its first 787s in a little more than a year. At WestJet's investor day earlier this month, the airline shared a world map showing routes it might fly. In China, only Beijing and Shanghai made the list. But that could change.
What do you think? Should United have stayed Hangzhou and Xi'an as a long-term play? Or was it smart to leave? |
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| | On the bottom of Virgin Atlantic's upper class salt-and-pepper shakers, the airline has printed a message — "Pinched from Virgin Atlantic" — presumably to discourage passengers from taking them off the plane.
But between December 21 and 26, Virgin Atlantic is introducing special commemorative red holiday shakers, and the airline is encouraging passengers to bring them home. That's the news highlighted in what ordinarily would be a boring press release.
But in this release, Virgin Atlantic's PR team shared the items most often stolen from its planes. According to the airline, they are:
Salt and pepper shakers Mugs in upper class and premium economy Blankets from all cabins Hand wash and hand cream (from the bathrooms!) Cultlery Safety cards Motion sickness bags
Insiders often joke about how often passengers steal from planes — one told me recently that passengers take bedding and pillows "even when they're bad" — but most say they don't mind when travelers take stuff. For some, they're a memento of a good trip, and perhaps a subtle reminder they should book another on the same airline.
"If a couple of our Big Love spoons end up on the Thanksgiving dinner table, I wouldn't mind," a Delta executive told Bloomberg earlier this year after the airline announced it would use red spoons made by Alessi.
What's the most unusual item you've stolen from a plane? |
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| | For the next installment of my Airline Insiders series — that's my question and answer feature with an executive from an airline, airport or vendor — I'm featuring architect Pat Askew, global director of aviation at HKS.
He had some interesting anecdotes, some related to Doha's airport, which he helped design. He worked with Bechtel, the global engineering, construction, and project management company.
"If you know Bechtel, they had the prime contract," Askew said. "It's funny, the guy who ran the Bechtel thing said, 'There's two challenging types of clients. One with not enough money, and then one with too much money.' They kept wanting to make it bigger and bigger, and Doha, if you've seen it, it really is magnificent."
Look for the full interview soon. |
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| Skift Airline Business Reporter Brian Sumers [bss@skift.com] curates the Skift Airline Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Wednesday. Have a story idea? Or a juicy news tip? Want to share a memo? Send me an email or tweet me. |
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