|

American Airlines Makes Sabre Official, United Gets Rid Of Cleveland As A Hub. Things I Find Interesting On Sunday, February 2nd, 2014

American Airlines has officially announced it will stick with the reservation system that American has used for ages, Sabre.  This is not a terrible shock as Doug has publicly stated he learned from the last time he tried to use the smaller airlines’ reservation system (when Doug’s America West took over US Airways).  That transition was so bad that it actually forced the combined airline to ground the fleet, making for a lot of angry customers.

It’s a good early indicator that Doug Parker is going to try hard not to learn some lessons twice, but it doesn’t mean all moves will be customer centric ones.  Just look to the recent confirmation that American is adding more seats to parts of their fleet.  Less legroom does not equal happier customers.

United has announced that it will begin getting rid of its Cleveland hub.  This is really no surprise when you consider that United already has hubs in Chicago, Washington-Dulles and Newark.  It’s mostly a reduction in regional jet flights.  Regional jets are something business fliers generally tolerate but don’t love, so I suspect the only folks likely to be upset about this are folks who originate in Cleveland and now may have to take a connection to get where they’re going.

For me, this is slightly positive news in that there was at least some chance my hometown airport (Dulles) might see sizable reductions.  I’ve viewed that as a very remote possibility, but United CEO Jeff Smisek has never really spoken lovingly about Dulles and there’s been an ongoing gentle tug-of-war between United and the local airport authority about how to get an airline terminal that doesn’t resemble a shoebox anchored in a swamp.  De-hubbing Cleveland doesn’t take further reductions at Dulles off the table, but I’ve got to think they’re not likely to take that much capacity out of this general area of the country all at once.

Wyndham Rewards devalues parts of their loyalty program significantly, without notice.  That sucks, and it just gives me one more reason not to be interested in staying with them.

Hilton has a new bonus promotion for weekend stays that doesn’t really require you to stay on the weekends.  Hack My Trip has all the details.

Safe travels wherever you may be!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a Reply