Skift Business Traveler: American Airlines Hints at a Premium Economy Future

What to Know Now

The Australian Business Traveler highlighted a quote last week that may point to the future of American Airlines’ premium economy product.

“Premium Economy” to the big three domestic carriers is simply economy with more leg room, but for most international carriers it’s an entirely different class of service. Asked whether the airline was considering a similar type of service, perhaps on its international routes, it’s reported that American’s CEO paused deliberately and replied “We’re looking at it.”

If the rumors are true, American could be the first airline to launch international four-class service. How Premium Economy will impact booking process, let alone upgrades and mileage earning, will be a whole other ball of wax.

Social Quote of the Day

I won’t pay for MCE [Main Cabin Extra] because it offers nothing of value. There’s no extra width or recline at all. You don’t get a leg rest or foot rest. It does nothing to promote sleep or comfort TPAC. But Y+ [Economy Plus] would be worth it.

– Owen @ OneMileAtATime

Airlines

U.S. Airlines Bet on Long Oil Slump After Millions Lost to Hedging: Two of the world’s biggest airlines are betting that oil prices won’t rally any time soon, growing more cautious after losing hundreds of millions of dollars on hedges. Read more at Skift

A New Idea for Airline Loyalty: Cash Back Rewards for Frequent Flyers: Starting next year, the airline’s customers will earn miles based on how much they spend on a ticket rather than how far they fly. In making the shift, American becomes the last of the big three U.S. airlines to adopt a revenue-based frequent-flier program. The switch makes good economic sense for the airlines. But if the goal of such programs is to reward and incentivize loyal passengers, then it’s time to replace mileage rewards with something else entirely: cash. Read more at Skift

The Reason You Get Emotional Or Contemplative On Long Flights: “It’s a well described phenomena,” Professor Drew Dawson, Director of the Appleton Institute at Central Queensland University told The Huffington post Australia.

Post-Thanksgiving Travel in U.S. Is Better Than Usual This Year: Tens of millions of Americans returning home after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend Sunday had cooperative weather and mostly efficient airport operations to thank for smooth traveling conditions. Read more at Skift

Airports

U.S. Holiday Travel This Year Means Security Checks and Long Lines: Wait times at U.S. airport security checkpoints were already up this year as passenger counts grew and the Transportation Security Administration imposed more thorough screening protocols. Read more at Skift

Government proposes more airport drop-off charges to combat pollution: Unpopular “kiss-and-drop” charges could be extended to more UK airports after the transport minister praised them as an effective way to encourage people to take public transport. Read more at the Telegraph

American Airlines Wins Battle With Delta Over Tokyo’s Haneda Airport: American Airlines Group Inc. will keep the right to fly between Los Angeles and Tokyo’s Haneda airport, after federal regulators rejected claims by Delta Air Lines Inc. that the privilege should be revoked because American failed to begin service quickly enough. Read more at Skift

Tech

JetBlue Launches Amazon Streaming on All Planes Equipped With Fly-Fi: Just in time for the holidays, JetBlue has announced that it will premiere Amazon Video unlimited streaming entertainment this week on over 150 aircraft equipped with its free Fly-Fi broadband Internet. Read more at Skift

Interview: Google’s Head of Travel on Its Transition to Booking Site: When it comes to hotels, Google the search engine is transitioning toward becoming a booking platform. The nature of Google search results has changed, as well, as most organic search results have been buried below the fold. Read more at Skift

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Reusable Rockets Could Change Space Tourism: Fifty-eight years after Sputnik, a new space race is unfolding. This time, instead of nuclear-armed superpowers, the protagonists are trash-talking billionaires. But the outcome may one day prove as electrifying as the moon landings. Read more at Skift

Hotels

Hyatt Tests Facebook Messenger as a Customer Service Channel: Hyatt has been offering customer service on social platforms since 2009, including private messaging through the company’s Facebook pages, and it has become the first travel company to test doing so through Facebook’s Businesses on Messenger. Read more at Skift

Video: Wyndham’s CMO on the Unseen Power of Middle America: Josh Lesnick, chief marketing officer at Wyndham Hotel Group, spoke at the Skift Global Forum Skift Global Forum about the importance of middle America that travel brands ignore. Read more at Skift

Could Hotel Cancellation Fees Be On The Rise? The hotel industry has been doing quite well overall, with pretty high occupancy and room rates across most regions. Of course they’re always aiming to do better, and earlier this year we saw some of the major chains implement new policies to deal with room cancellations. Read more at One Mile at a Time

Rezidor Hotels Vows To Reopen Radisson Blu in Mali After Attack: A luxury hotel attacked by Islamic extremists last week in Mali’s capital will re-open “as soon as possible,” the chairman of the hotel’s Brussels-based operating group said. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

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Tips and Comements

Can be sent to gm[at]skift[dot]com or to @grantkmartin

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