Cranky Flier

This week has been unexpectedly busy, and I don’t have a post that’s quite ready for primetime today.

Summer is over, and that means planning for the Cranky Network Awards presented by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is in full swing.

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.

Southwest held a media day last week to announce more details on lounges and changes to the Rapid Rewards program.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Who doesn’t love a long chat about joint ventures?

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.

It looks like Breeze is starting to make some friends closer to home.

I generally hesitate to talk too much about aircraft accidents and incidents, because it’s not my primary area of expertise.

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.

Alaska’s media and investor day was just a few hours, but it seemed much longer.

Greetings from Seattle.

It’s been almost three months since Avelo announced it would start serving McKinney (DTX) to the northeast of Dallas.

The worst airports if you have a connecting flight – Washington Post What’s the worst airport to connect in?

Breeze Wants Spirit Slots to Blow Away from Legacy Carriers Breeze, along with Frontier and the Association of Value Airlines want assurances from the government that any future slot awards from the carcass of Spirit (or otherwise) go to its fellow LCCs a…

When the Tulum airport opened in late 2023, hopes were high that it would become a boost for the fast-growing tourism business in the region.

Just like the entire Valley of the Sun, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport started off sleepy but has grown dramatically in recent decades.

What.

We are back from our late summer break, and this week Brian and I talk about the summer 2027 announcements from Air Canada, American, and United.

Might as well close out this week of SoCal posts with a look at the airport that’s the Southernmost of Cal, San Diego.

In three days, hordes of avgeeks will descend on LAX for Cranky Dorkfest, and I’m excited to see you all there.

Southwest has come to dominate in Southern California, as we learned yesterday, but the airline has changed a lot in the last several years.

When people talk about the airline industry in California, you’ll hear about all the airlines fighting at LAX or United’s dominance in San Francisco.

Twenty.

After a hurried run through the Big Island thanks to losing a day from our previous fiasco getting to Hawaiʻi, I was hopeful the rest of the trip would go smoothly.

Alaska Airlines is holding a big media and investor day on September 29, and that means it’s a rare time when I will be in person with my two co-hosts of The Air Show — Brian Sumers and Jon Ostrower.

With American recently announcing its European-focus for the deployment of its A321XLR, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is the best use of these airplanes.

Hello, Seattle!

JetBlue has had a fantastic premium product for more than decade, Mint.

After writing up my recent 14-hour delay on Hawaiian, GS left a comment asking about the average length of delay for each airline as opposed to just the percentage that are delayed.

It’s a day ending in “y” so nobody should be surprised that United CEO Scott Kirby is making news once again.

United Adds All the Destinations United Airlines has made its summer route announcements into an annual thing, and the airline did not disappoint this year.

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts You want more on American?

With Cranky Dorkfest coming up, and the waitlist for the LAX ramp visit growing, I’ve been asked by some how they could have learned about the event more quickly.

United loves a big summer announcement, and sometimes it doesn’t live up to the very high levels of hype.

It turns out that regional powerhouse airBaltic has been having a tough time lately.

I was solo on the podcast again this week, but instead of a guest host, I interviewed Southwest COO Andrew Watterson.

Remember that saga from earlier this year where I had a tough time using my Alaska/Hawaiian companion fare but finally got it worked out?

American’s transition to a premium airline took another very big step forward today as it has decided to reverse course.

I’m back from vacation, and as tempting as it was to write up my trip report straight away thanks to a 14-hour delay to kick things off, there was news from while I was gone that I want to talk about first.

It was twenty years ago today that I logged in at crankyflier.blogspot.com and introduced myself to… well, I guess the few family and friends who knew that I was going to start writing about the airline industry and not really anybody else.

Air Canada goes Private Equity Air Canada is selling a 25% stake in its Aeroplan loyalty program to a group of well-intentioned and customer-loving individuals from Blackstone and Canadian pension fund La Caisse for a cool $2 billion.

Allegiant’s Revenue and Profit Was Up Allegiant finally announced its Q2 earnings, and the carrier posted $158 million in EBITDA in its first earnings since the close of its merger with Sun Country on May 13.

You probably didn’t know it, but I’ve been on vacation this whole week.

Yesterday I gave you a little history about Washington Dulles International Airport, so you could see why modernization is so important.

I was torn on whether to write about the new, grand plan to completely remake Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD).

JetBlue Reports Decent Earnings JetBlue stock (side note: people at JetBlue can’t like the fact they got beat to the ‘BLUE’ ticker symbol) soared Tuesday as it released its Q2 earnings which exceeded Wall Street estimates and saw an 11% jump in unit reven…