American Airlines prepares to book flights at full capacity again as virus cases take off


Tomorrow’s turnAll your daily car news in one convenient place. Isn’t your time more important?

American airlines Flights booked at capacity in two days won’t be the only thing to take off, Ford has to try to launch its best-seller in quarantine, and the industry is panicking now that they can’t market trucks for sports fans. All that and more in Tomorrow’s turn for Monday, June 29, 2020.

1st gear: virus keeps rising

Just as the federal government realizes that pressuring any governor who hears it reopen its state at the first sign of a decline in COVID-19 cases was a horrible idea, as US cases reach a new historical record while the rest of the world seems on the road to recovery.

Despite this, American airlines It will begin operating flights back to capacity as soon as two days from now, on July 1, which doesn’t seem particularly smart:

Notifications to reserved customers on busier flights

As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are reserved to capacity as of July 1. American will continue to notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights when they become available, all without incurring any costs. This is in addition to the airline’s current travel exemptions. Additional details on travel exemptions can be found below and at aa.com/travelalerts.

If space is available after boarding is complete, taking into account aircraft weight or balance restrictions, customers may move to another seat within their cabin with a ticket subject to availability.

Flexibility for clients

American is giving customers additional flexibility to travel by extending its offer to exempt exchange fees. This offer applies to tickets that meet the following criteria:

  • Any ticket to travel until September 30, 2020 will not incur exchange fees prior to travel. Customers must pay any rate difference, if applicable, at the time the new rate is issued. Ticket rules may apply depending on the ticket.
  • All AAdvantage® award tickets are included in this offer.
  • Customers can change their cities of origin and destination as part of this offer.
  • Travel must be completed by December 31, 2021.

Any situation where a passenger jet is actively encouraging me to stay away from as many people as possible, while trying to convince myself that it’s okay to be in a sealed tube for hours, sounds like an incomplete situation. The only change now is that American basically cleans the plane better than it used to before the flights.

G / O Media may receive a commission

If we had trains, they could all have compartments, and they could even open windows, etc.

2nd gear: Ford can’t screw this up

After fully searching for the new Ford Explorer After an overly enthusiastic plan for a quick factory change went wrong last year, Ford now promises that its next-gen F-150 launch will be much easier, despite a global pandemic potentially signaling another six months of hell. for Americans who want to keep breathing. Of Automotive News:

To deploy the Explorer, Ford downed his Chicago assembly plant to the posts, rebuilt it in 30 days, and attempted to run three shifts of scouts, Lincoln airmen, and police interceptors from the jump. It turned out to be a serious mistake.

The plant was unable to get the line speeds to move as fast as expected, and some of the first construction had to be shipped to Michigan for additional quality checks. The stumbling blocks contributed to a sad final quarter in 2019 and it probably cost executive Joe Hinrichs his job.

Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s head of purchasing and product development, told Automotive News that none of that will happen with the F-150.

For starters, Ford doesn’t have to gut its collection assembly plants in Kansas City, Missouri, and Dearborn, Michigan. The two-plant system also offers coverage against early problems and allows continuous production of the current model in one plant. while the other goes up.

Trucks aren’t having a hard time selling, but given the risk that many things in the world could get worse until November, Ford will really want to have a smooth Expedition launch.

3rd gear: some retailers will not return

While many companies are still up in the air about what to do with a massive workforce, some of which have been laid off, are not working, laid off, or are currently working from home, some of those jobs will simply never return after a rigorous round pandemic cost reduction, Automotive News reports:

Franchise dealerships terminated or suspended about 300,000 employees, or more than a quarter of the industry’s workforce, during the devastating first months of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, and nearly half of the jobs in Dealer were reduced or altered in some way, the technology firm Recruitment Hireology estimates. Dealer employment began to recover as states began easing restrictions on staying home and retailers took advantage of federal Paycheck Protection Program loans aimed at supporting payrolls.

But even as retail sales increased in May and June, there is reason to believe that the fever could be temporary. When will the cumulative demand of consumers who stayed home in March and April decrease? How severe will the drop in inventory levels be for new and used vehicle sales? Improved productivity caused by accelerating digital retailing and fears of increased coronavirus cases also leave many retailers hesitant to restore staffing to pre-virus levels, distributors and experts say.

Trends can trigger permanent changes in dealer personnel models. Some of the country’s largest dealer groups, citing lower vehicle sales and success with digital channels, have already said that thousands of their job cuts are permanent.

Many retail workers do not know if they will get their old job back. This is another very real game, very tense to wait and see.

4th Gear: Even Nissan marketing is totally screwed up now

Everyone knows that Nissan has really been going through this for the past few years, with an executive financial scandal, poor sales, fledgling design, and vintage halo models that no one cares about anymore.

However, its new goals of focusing more on quality and not just market share may have some issues, as 80 percent of Nissan’s marketing budget goes to sports-related properties, which are not playing right now.

Of Automotive News:

That’s a problem for car brands, including Nissan. Sport is the largest area of ​​Nissan’s annual media spending, the automaker said. Automakers spent nearly 80 percent of their sponsorship dollars on sports property last year, according to the IEG consultancy.

Witherspoon: commitment to sport remains

Allyson Witherspoon, vice president of marketing and media communications for Nissan North America, said it is too early to predict when major sporting events will return as a major marketing platform. But Nissan will be waiting. “Our commitment to sport will continue to be,” he said. Automotive News. “We are having active conversations every week with our different properties. We want to position ourselves to be in a conversation when major sports come back. “

It is an inopportune time for Nissan to lose a key communications platform. The automaker is organizing a product offensive that involves updating approximately 70 percent of its portfolio in mid-2021.

I can’t wait for the car to turn into E-sports, where players run over in Rogues in Fortnite, or something like that. I went to school for marketing, so that’s a real marketing idea. The phone line is open.

5th Gear: GMC Diesel A Conquest

GMC claims that its diesel offering at the GMC Sierra has led to many “conquest sales,” or customers who abandoned the brand of other trucks to buy a GMC. Of Automotive News:

Reaching a consumption rate of 20 percent for the Sierra’s 3.0-liter Duramax turbodiesel, up from 10 percent today, will take some time, said Phil Brook, GMC vice president of marketing. “We have to be a little more aware of how good our diesel is,” he said. But “we are so confident and excited about this engine. I think it is very feasible. “

According to a GMC survey conducted in March, more than two-thirds of Sierra’s diesel buyers were new to diesel engines, although they were not new to trucks, and more than half were new customers of GMC.

That 20 percent take rate is an internal goal for GM, but the news here is the other numbers. If two-thirds of Sierra’s diesel buyers are new to diesel, and half of them are first-time GMC buyers, then one-third of GMC’s diesel buyers are conquest sales. That is a good metric for a vehicle with a high risk of being canned at any time.

Reverse: space van

Neutral: ARE YOU GETTING TO A PLANE?

If so, WHY?

.