When an airline’s own pilots call its service “outright embarrassing,” and deride the company’s corporate culture as “toxic,” you can safely say that airline has a problem.
27.07.2023 - 18:26 / smartertravel.com / Tim Winship / Will Trump
If you’re among the many air travelers who believe that the airlines have conspired to keep airfares high by restraining capacity growth, you’re about to have that suspicion reality-checked in a court of law.
Late last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overruled objections by the airlines and gave the go-ahead to a class-action suit alleging price-fixing by the Big Four airlines, American, Delta, Southwest, and United. While the judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, didn’t rule on the merits of the plaintiffs’ complaint, she said she could “reasonably infer the existence of a conspiracy.”
Related:Do We Need Kids-Free Seating on U.S. Airlines?There’s little question that the airlines reduced capacity beginning in 2009, following the latest recession. And they did so in what appears to be a coordinated fashion. To prove collusion, however, requires more than the appearance of coordinated action. In this case, that coordination may have been hidden in plain sight.
During the period in question, top executives of the defendant airlines routinely made public statements calling for the need for “capacity discipline” in order to firm up prices and restore profits. If those statements turn out to be the smoking gun in the case, those airline managers will have shot themselves in the foot.
It will take months, perhaps longer, for the case (Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 15-mc-01404) to play out. In the meantime, the Department of Justice is also looking into charges that the Big Four fixed prices.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. But proving there’s fire, even when you have burns to show for it, is another matter.
Reader Reality Check
Is there a conspiracy here, or just four companies independently reacting to market forces?
More from SmarterTravel: Will Trump Hotels Survive Donald Trump the Candidate? The Jet-Lag Problem, Solved? 21 Things Flight Attendants Hate About YouAfter 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
When an airline’s own pilots call its service “outright embarrassing,” and deride the company’s corporate culture as “toxic,” you can safely say that airline has a problem.
In a big win for Uber, the ride-sharing service today announced a new partnership with American, the world’s largest airline. “The companies will work together to provide customers faster service, better airport navigation, rider promotions and mileage promotions.”
Bad news for the airlines often translates as good news for travel consumers.
Beginning on June 1, Spirit will become the third airline to pull out of the Cuba market altogether, joining Frontier and Silver Airways. Two other airlines, American and JetBlue, have cut capacity on their Cuba flights, either by reducing frequency or downgrading to smaller planes.
When Muslim Advocates and the NAACP issue a joint letter accusing the U.S. airline industry of racism, it’s big news. And when the NAACP, the “nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization,” follows that up with an advisory specifically questioning the racial policies of the nation’s largest airline, American, it’s nothing less than a media firestorm. Indeed, all the major news media covered the story exhaustively. And “American Airlines” has been a trending Twitter topic for several days.
Enter the American Airlines “Your Vacation Spot” sweepstakes by April 1, 2016, for a chance to win the grand prize: a $10,000 American Airlines Vacations travel voucher.
Alaska Airlines is justly lauded for its Mileage Plan loyalty program, which among other features boasts 17 airline partners, allowing program members to earn and redeem miles for flights throughout the world.
Tickets go on sale today from a brand-new airline.
Update, September 18: The FAA has issued updated guidance regarding usage of Samsung Galaxy 7 phones in flight, stating “passengers may not turn on or charge the devices when they carry them on board a plane. Passengers must also protect the devices from accidental activation, including disabling any features that may turn on the device, such as alarm clocks, and must not pack them in checked luggage.” The statement does not mention if any penalties are associated with failure to comply with this guidance. Read the full statement here.
Yesterday’s crash landing of Emirates flight EK521 in Dubai generated a flood of images of panicked travelers, loaded down with their carry-on bags, fleeing the burning B777-300. The headline of Bloomberg’s coverage of the incident said it all: “Crashing, Burning Planes Don’t Stop Passengers From Grabbing Their Luggage.”
On Friday evening—traditional timing for bad-news announcements that companies hope will go unnoticed by the public and unreported by the media—American published the new mileage-earning rates, effective from August 1, for travel on AAdvantage partner airlines.
In 2015, flyers filed 15,260 complaints with the Department of Transportation. That was a 34 percent increase over 2014’s 11,365 complaints.