American Airlines Miami Lounge Disaster: Flagship Dining’s Service Failures Highlight Bigger Problems [Roundup] – View from the Wing

News and notes from around the interweb:

• I usually say that which lounge service provider an airline uses matters less than the budget they’re willing to commit, but this story about Sodexo staff at the American Airlines Flagship First Dining in Miami is the perfect argument why I’m wrong.

  It isn’t just budget – the contracted staff requires real supervision, and company managers that care about the service execution details. The mid-level managers (on up) at American should be ashamed over this, but the incentives for them to be just aren’t there.

  it was 1:15 and we were the only ones in the dining area. After we were seated nobody took our order for 15 mins. Finally a waitress came out looking extremely annoyed and said they opened at 1:30 hence the delay (website shows 1 PM). Wanted to avoid an argument so we went ahead and ordered our food and asked for a glass of champagne and a cocktail each. Waitress goes “only one at a time” very rudely.

  … There’s nobody at the bar, we don’t get any of our food including appetizers for another 25 mins. …Finally the waitress comes out 10 mins later after clearly having been told that I had complained. Mentions that food “takes a long time to prep since it’s made to order”. I told her I understand but we’re the only ones here and nobody has even asked us if we want another drink, more water, or anything. We end up ordering a second drink which takes another 10 mins. Finally we start getting our food. At this point it’s been an hour 15 mins since we first got to the lounge (and this whole time it’s just been us). …I ask the waitress for a glass of whiskey before we leave. She looks upset as per usual.

  

• Seat 31B does a nice job laying out a new points redemption opportunity. Citibank added Preferred Hotels iPrefer as a 1:4 transfer partner back in October, but hotels generally offered little to no availability. As Frequent Miler noted last month, that has changed. And the values are fantastic – consider redeeming Citi points at over 3 cents apiece for a midrange downtown hotel. There are some great properties, too.
• Aerolineas Argentinas has cut 13% of staff – and snacks – to make itself more attractive for a sale. (HT: @istrakhov)
  

  The airline has trimmed its in-flight snack options, saving the firm more than $500,000 a year, the senior airline source said, as the company took a cue from American Airlines which famously cut an olive from each salad served in first class in the 1980s to reduce costs.
  Aerolineas now offers just one dessert in executive class and has cut a cereal bar for economy passengers, the senior company source added.

  Unions and Milei’s political opponents have fought back, with protests at major airports wreaking havoc on air travel in recent months, causing flight cancellations and delays. In December, Buenos Aires province’s opposition governor said he would oppose any attempt at privatization.

  “Our labor is the only weapon we have,” said veteran Aerolineas pilot Juan Pablo Mazzieri, who sports a tattoo of the airline’s logo, an Andean condor, on his shoulder. “We don’t like doing it, but we’re going to cause delays and cancellations.”

• If the Airbnb listing says it’s haunted, you can’t demand a refund because of the ghost right?
  

  Airbnb CEO shares his “most bizarre” customer complaint till date
  byu/ASH_National infunny

• United Airlines pamphlet on common decency.
  

  Cracking down on “ESA”
  byu/usernamecheckout1 inunitedairlines

• Boston Chase Sapphire lounge to be closed January 6-16.

  

• Dubai is the world’s busiest airport by seats flown