Skift Business Traveler: WSJ Ranks Alaska Best, American Airlines Worst Airline of 2015

What to Know Now

Scott McCartney from the Wall Street Journal put together his annual scorecard for american air carriers late last week and once more, Alaska Airlines took home the crown for the best airline. Alaska has been ranked #1 for 5 of the last 8 years.

American Airlines edged out United as the lowest ranked carrier, thanks to a bad weather near its Dallas hub and operational difficulties from its merger with US Airways.

Rankings were compiled as a function of on-time arrivals, canceled flights, extreme delays, 2-hour tarmac delays, mishandled bags, involuntary bumps and complaints. Alaska scored top marks in on-time arrivals, extreme delays, 2-hour tarmac delays and complaints, while American scored worst in Canceled flights, 2-hour tarmac delays and mishandled bags.

As with other years, the WSJ doesn’t consider factors such as fleet, cabin design or other subjective measures not statistically rankable — so if you think that JetBlue has the nicest business class or Virgin America has the friendliest flight attendants, that doesn’t matter. But if you need to get from point A to point B and not lose your luggage, the rankings are an interesting study.

Social Quote of the Day

The dates have been announced for Aviation Geek Fest Seattle 2016: http://www.airlinereporter.com/agf/ #AGFSEA16

– @AirlineReporter

Airlines

Delta Will Rely on Partnerships to Expand Routes in Asia: Delta Air Lines Inc. will rely on partnerships with China Eastern Airlines Corp. and Jet Airways India Ltd. to deepen its offerings and improve connectivity to two of the largest economies in Asia, a senior executive for the region said. Read more at Skift

Singapore Airlines Introduces Unlimited Data Roaming In-Flight, for a Fee: In conjunction with Singapores’ mobile provider M1 Limited and SITA’s Mobile OnAir, Singapore Airlines will introduce unlimited in-flight mobile data roaming on its flights. Read more at Skift

Delta Bullish on Corporate Travel and U.S. Economy in 2016: Stock markets globally may have hit a lot of turbulence so far in 2016 but Delta Air Lines management is bullish on the U.S. economy and demand for corporate travel in particular. Read more at Skift

Airports

Can you hail an UberX from LAX? Yes. (Finally) UberX drivers may pick passengers at Los Angeles International Airport starting on Jan. 21, the airport announced this week. Read more at BrianSumers.com

New York-JFK Airport Using Facial Recognition for Security Screening: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City has started using new face recognition technology. Read more at Skift

Southwest Keeps Fight Alive Against Delta at Dallas Love Field: Southwest Airlines plans to appeal a judge’s order that lets Delta Air Lines continue operating at Dallas Love Field during a dispute over gates. Read more at Skift

Delayed on United? You could get more money in airport vouchers: United Airlines is raising the value of vouchers it gives customers whose flights have been delayed by mechanical problems and other airline-related issues. Read more at BrianSumers.com

Tech

The Asian On-Demand Carpooling App That’s Eyeing Hong Kong: Ex-Citigroup Inc. banker Terence Zou started a carpooling app in Singapore to help cut road congestion, pollution and commuting costs. Now he’s in talks to raise money so he can bring that model to another crowded city — Hong Kong. Read more at Skift

The Tax Challenges for Airbnb Hosts, Lyft Drivers and the On-Demand Economy: Did you start driving for Uber or Lyft last year? Rent your house out through Airbnb? You could be in for some surprises come tax time if you didn’t pay any estimated taxes. Read more at Skift

Hotels

Interview: Four Seasons CEO on the Brand’s Singular Focus: With a slew of hotels in the pipeline for 2016, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts has remained remarkably linear in its approach to scale. Read more at Skift

Expedia Leads $9.5 Million Investment in Hotel App Alice to Enhance Hotel Relationships: Expedia has led a $9.5 million minority investment in Alice, which provides a back-end platform for hotel operations and a guest app for communications with hotel staff, as Expedia continues to follow Booking.com and TripAdvisor into the business side of the hotel industry. Read more at Skift

Disruption Comes to Lifestyle Hotels in the Form of On-Demand Meeting Spaces: Bizly has launched as an iOS app platform for users seeking last-minute meeting space at luxury and lifestyle hospitality brands, ranging from Mandarin Oriental to the Standard, Morgans, and Ace hotel groups. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

New data from Skift suggests that 41% of people took 0% of their vacation time last year. Get out there!

Tips and Comments

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

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