Cranky Flier

It’s the trip you’ve been asking for. Literally. With an expiring Alaska credit, I decided to let you tell me where to go one week ago today. When the votes were counted, you picked Loreto, and so that’s where I went. I know you’re dying to hear about it, so I didn’t want to waste any time. Today, I’ll give you the trip report on the flights, but stayed tuned for a breakdown of how I spent my time in Loreto. Here’s an impossibly-blue teaser:

An “introvert by trade” with an algebra teacher for a mother and lawyer for a father, American’s Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper was brought up to analyze and then act. You’re going to study. You’re going to do your homework, you’re going to put rational arguments together. But once you kind of figure it out because you’ve done your homework, let’s go. When he explained this to me during our recent lunch interview, I was perplexed.

The logjam has finally broken. After years of Boeing’s arrogance-driven ride into the much-deserved penalty box, it is finally getting airplanes certified again. First, we had the B737-7 MAX, and now the -10 has been certified as well. The -10 is a much bigger deal for the industry and for travelers. Original B737-10 MAX image via Boeing and then very poorly stretched by Gemini AI to make a point that it’s really damn long We all know that both the -8 and -9 were certified

American Earnings Paint Bleak Picture “American delivered record third-quarter revenue and the strongest year-over-year revenue growth in my career, with premium performance leading the way,” American CEO Robert Isom said in a releAAse which buries the lede that AA’s Q3 was poor enough for the carrier to slow its capacity growth next year with a loss now expected for the full year to equal as much as $1.60 per share. American’s two largest expenses continue to be labor and fue

This week has been unexpectedly busy, and I don’t have a post that’s quite ready for primetime today. So, instead, I’m going to do something weird. I’m going to have you tell me where to go. See, I have a credit on Alaska that must have all travel completed in the next week. I don’t have to use this credit, but also, I can…. And I do have a couple of days that I can actually afford to take off. I’ve come up with some ideas, and I put them on Blues

Summer is over, and that means planning for the Cranky Network Awards presented by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is in full swing. I thought it was time for a little update on where things stand, and I’m delighted to announce that we’ll be staying in Phoenix for years to come. 2027 Will Look Familiar The 2027 awards will be held on February 25, and we’ll be in the same venue as the last couple of years. After last year’s move to the Courtyard, the h

Fall has arrived, and though I’m still completely and totally focused on the baseball postseason, it is also the time when the NBA and NHL start their games. I noticed a couple of odd charters that caught my eye, and that, as usual, sent me down the rabbit hole looking at how sports charters work when there are teams traveling across borders. It is… complicated. This isn’t an issue for the NFL where no teams exist outside the US. It’s also not much of an issue for the

Southwest held a media day last week to announce more details on lounges and changes to the Rapid Rewards program. I didn’t attend, but there was one thing that really stood out from all these announcements. The fun, the playfulness, is being designed out of the airline, and there is no good reason for that. This is something that has been on my mind for awhile now, especially as the airline has gone through rapid changes to its business model. The whole pitch was basically, &#8220

Southwest Overhauls Rapid Rewards Another day and another dramatic change for Southwest Airlines — the carrier shared its 2027 Rapid Rewards Program and things sure are going to look different. The carrier is leaving no stone unturned — everything is changing. New elite tiers, companion pass changes, new ways to redeem points, and new names. A-List and A-List preferred are gone and in their place will be their cleverly named Silver, Gold, and Platinum. A-List members will trans

You already read about American Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper’s plans for American’s future from a high level, but if you know Nat, you also know that no talk is complete without a good fleet discussion. Nat is a fleet guy, and his career history shows that. At Northwest, he was in finance where he handled fleet transactions starting in the 1990s. When Northwest and Delta merged, he was chosen to be the VP of Fleet Strategy and Transactions. Then when he went to Alaska, h

It’s been about 40 years in the making, but as of this morning, Burbank Airport finally has a new terminal that isn’t considered to be a safety hazard. The airport’s largest tenant Southwest invited me to an event last week to get a sneak preview of the space. It is going to be a very welcome change. Here is a map of what is happening: The old terminals are highlighted in red on the map. This first opened nearly 100 years ago, and it was in no way capable of handling

American Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper was in Los Angeles last week, and I had the opportunity to have a wide-ranging, thoughtful discussion with him about everything from loyalty to joint ventures, network planning, and more. There are more posts coming out of this conversation, but today I want to focus on the biggest news he shared. Nat confirmed to me that American is going to once again make LAX its Pacific gateway, reversing a pandemic-era decision. Your initial thought, like mine, m

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Who doesn’t love a long chat about joint ventures? We talk about the history, how DOT views them, and what this might mean for Alaska joining with the big boys this week. Southwest? B787? You Must be Dreaming Unconfirmed reports this week emerged that Southwest has its eye on gently-used B787s to start a potential future long-haul operation. As we know — since its inception — Southwest ha

Alaska Air Group media day was conveniently scheduled just after the airline’s new Seattle to Long Beach flight began, so I was very happy to be able to fly from my home airport. Alaska was even kinder to put me in First Class. What was it like? Well it wasn’t full, which always makes me nervous… but it was a generally good experience. They do need to get catering resolved in Long Beach, however. Disclosure: Alaska provided all travel for media day for those who could accep

It looks like Breeze is starting to make some friends closer to home. A limited partnership with Alaska went live last night, and now you can buy Breeze flights on the Alaska website. When you do that, you’ll earn Atmos points. This is not a huge partnership by any stretch yet, but it is still a notable one. I first saw the rumors on Enilria’s site Sunday. Alaska had quietly put this notice up on its partner page FAQ: My initial thought was that this was a mistake. ITA

I generally hesitate to talk too much about aircraft accidents and incidents, because it’s not my primary area of expertise. But every so often, a story like flydubai 1073’s near disaster heading to Tel Aviv leaves me awestruck, and I just can’t help myself. While we certainly don’t have the full story yet, it is clear that there are many ways this could — and likely should — have ended in tragedy. Improbably, it didn’t. We’ve all heard the bas

Alaska, Hawaiian to Join JVs As part of its media and investor day on Tuesday, Alaska Air Group revealed its intention to join the transatlantic and transpacific joint ventures along with several of its oneworld friends. Going Down Under appears to be excluded for now, even though American and Qantas have a tie-up of their own. Regulatory approval is not a slam dunk on this one, so the process could end up being drawn out for many months…or more. The transatlantic JV features Aer Lin

Alaska’s media and investor day was just a few hours, but it seemed much longer. That’s probably because it was action-packed with some time spent listening to talks, tasting food, and experiencing cabin plans. As if that wasn’t enough to fill the day, Brian Sumers, Jon Ostrower, and I then headed over to a separate venue for our very first live recording of The Air Show podcast. A full house showed up to see us interview Alaska President and Chief Financial Officer Shane Tac

Greetings from Seattle. Today is Alaska’s media and investor day, and the airline is showing us the next step of its “Alaska Accelerate” program. What are we learning? Well, the basic details are out, and it looks a whole lot like an airline trying to put together a competitive product as a global premium carrier. In other words, this is about playing catch-up to be more like the big three on long-haul… and in the transcon market. What I’m hoping to learn at the

It’s been almost three months since Avelo announced it would start serving McKinney (DTX) to the northeast of Dallas. It has not even started flying yet — that comes in November — but it is adding flights already. This third-based aircraft will open up four new destinations. Let’s take a deeper look. First, I have to give the obligatory map so we can set the scene. The Metroplex is a big place, as anyone who flies into DFW can see clearly since there aren’