August 31, 2020

The Winds of Change Reach United… Fee Free

1 The first pandemic-era adjustment to travel to stick permanently is the elimination of change fees at United Airlines. Effective immediately, United is ending change fees on non-basic economy U.S. domestic travel “forever.” The end of the previous $200 change fees is valid on flights between the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. United will also allow customers to standby for free the day of travel, as opposed to the current $75 fee.

The exceptions to the rule (there’s always a catch…) are for basic economy tickets and international travel. Those itineraries are still changeable without fee through December 31 under United’s original waiver. When that waiver expires, international change fees will apply as before and basic economy tickets will be non-changeable.

You’ll be shocked to know that there is a downside to this seemingly customer-friendly policy. United will not permit travelers to keep any residual value remaining on a ticket if it is changed to something with a lower fare. That’s going to create some real headaches for travelers sitting on expensive credits.

Last year United took in $625 million in change fees, third behind Delta and American. By eliminating the fees, the airline will be able to save further funds by laying off the guy who was in charge of extending the change fee waiver every month during the pandemic.


American Looks at United’s Changes and Says “I Got This…”

2 American Airlines had its own changes brewing, and it was clearly unimpressed by United’s announcement. AA has gone a couple steps further with its plan which was announced earlier this afternoon.

American will also put an end to change fees on domestic flights within the United States, but is going a step further, including Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Unlike United, American will allow the customer to keep any residual value on its ticket from the change.

AAdvantage members will be pleased to know that the new rule on change fees also applies to AAdvantage redemptions. Although if you’re regularly redeeming your miles for domestic flights, we need to have a different conversation.

American is also expanding the options for Basic Economy cheapskates customers, allowing a la carte additions to basic tickets. Basic customers can now purchase priority boarding, access to premium seats including Main Cabin Extra, same-day changes and cabin upgrades. American elites can now access the good seats in economy (exit row, MCE) on Basic Economy tickets and be upgraded… but they won’t be able to earn elite qualifying miles.


Cash Your Trifecta Tickets: Delta Says “Hey, Us Too!”

3 Remember back when the Big Three U.S. airlines all charged $200 change fees to make a change to your domestic itinerary? That was yesterday. Today, none of them have change fees for domestic travel.

In a refreshing reversal of normal protocol, Delta has now copied United… choosing to eliminate change fees on all flights booked within the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with the exception of Basic Economy fares. Basic Economy customers will instead be required to collect all cans used on-board the flight, then take them to an aluminum can redemption center and send Delta the coins received in exchange for the cans.

In addition, Delta is extending its waiver on change fees for newly purchased flights — including international and Basic Economy fares, through the end of 2020, and will extend its expiration on travel credits through December 2022 for all travel booked prior to April 17.


American Adds Snowbird Routes

4 American Airlines also announced a bunch of new routes featuring sunny destinations in the south and outdoorsy-type places where people like to sip cocoa and do things in and around snow.

The airline introduced 23 new routes with Mexico being the big winner, seeing service to nine new cities. Cancun will see once-weekly service on Saturday to four new cities: Colombus, Indianapolis, Kansas City and St.Louis, while also adding daily service from Raleigh-Durham. Los Cabos (SJD) will see three new cities, with 2x-daily service from New York/JFK and Saturday-only flights to Austin and Sacramento. Lastly, Puerto Vallarta (PVR) will see once-weekly flights from Charlotte.

Good luck at the immigration hall in Cancun on a Saturday afternoon. Hope you’re not in a hurry.

AA is also adding 14 new flights from two of its hubs – five from Miami and nine from Phoenix. Those destinations are:

Miami (all Saturday-only):

  • Dayton (DAY)
  • Lexington (LEX)
  • Milwaukee (MKE)
  • Portland, ME (PWM)
  • Rochester, NY (ROC)

Phoenix:

  • Billings (BIL) — daily
  • Bismarck, ND (BIS) — daily
  • Calgary (YYC) — daily
  • Cincinnati — 4x weekly
  • Cleveland — 1x weekly
  • Nashville — 4x weekly
  • Pittsburgh — daily
  • Raleigh/Durham — daily
  • Tulsa — daily

For more on AA’s schedule updates please visit today’s post at crankyflier.com.


JetBlue Raises $115 Million

5 JetBlue used 25 of its fleet of A321s to secure an additional $115 million in cash. The airline closed the deal last week allowing it to increase its cash reserves as demand for air-travel continues to wane.

JetBlue has been looking to increase its liquidity since the beginning of the pandemic, having used its slots at LGA, JFK, and DCA as collateral earlier in the summer to raise funds.

The airline used pass-through certificates to raise the money with interest on the loans payable twice a year through 2027. This comes in addition to a $115 loan JetBlue obtained using its stash of Dunkin Donuts coffee as collateral.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air Antwerp delayed its restart to September 14, two weeks later than originally planned.
  • American removed the 737 MAX from its October schedule, with the earliest the aircraft would return to the skies for AA being November 4. Don’t bet on that happening.
  • Avianca had a $370 million loan approved by the Colombian government.
  • Comair has announced the details of its plan to recover from bankruptcy which it was obligated to share by September 2.
  • LEVEL will resume 1x-weekly service between Barcelona and New York/JFK on September 11.
  • Lufthansa Cargo took delivery of its eighth B777F this past weekend.
  • Qatar is resuming 3x weekly flights to Mogadishu, Somalia (MGQ).
  • Rex announced a FY20 loss of $19 million, but he was a good boy, so it’s ok.
  • Royal Air Maroc announced 140 job layoffs.
  • Wizz Air is reducing its weekly flights from Hungary from 126 to 32 effective September 7 as the country closes its borders due to a spike in virus cases.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I saw a beautiful piece of art hanging in the local county jail last week. I asked a guard why it was there, and he said “because it was framed.”