Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for May 2005.

America West and USAirways to Merge

by Gary Leff

usairways
May 19 2005

The press release is here. As expected, USAirways is essentially being acquired by America West, though the airline will operate with the USAirways name. Significant cash will be added to the merged airline through the deal, including $75 million from Air Canada. This participation suggests to me that the combined airline will be a member of the Star Alliance. Of particular interest to me, $300 million in a signing bonus and a loan from prospective affinity credit card providers for the merged company. Negotiations with credit card companies are still in progress. Bank of America currently issues the affinity cards for USAirways and America West both. Now, this is the part of the press release that I simply don’t believe: The $600 million in anticipated annual synergies are the result of route restructuring, revenue synergies…

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XBox 360: the Next Free Electronics Offer

by Gary Leff

free xbox 360
May 19 2005

Gratis Internet, the people who brought you the free iPod and free digital camera, have a new promotion for a free X-box 360. These folks are seriously quick — it was only unveiled a week ago. This thing has wireless controllers, HD gaming, iPod compatibility and online features out of the box. Now, it won’t ship for several months, but I’m hoping to be one of the first ones to get it through the Gratis free offer. After all, I’ve already finished all their other offers.

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What would a USAirways-America West Merger Mean for the Two Frequent Flyer Programs

by Gary Leff

usairways
May 19 2005

Randy Petersen has a new post up on his blog, imagining what an America West-USAirways tie-up would mean for integration of the two airlines’ frequent flyer programs. He believes a merger or acquisition would be on the whole good for members miles would be far safer integration would happen over a couple of years with reciprocal space available upgrades for elites introduced quickly new redemption options would be introduced partners would be streamlined so some current relationships would disappear

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Yummmmm

by Gary Leff

Had some pretty good dim sum for lunch today at Mark’s Duck House. If you find yourself in Northern Virginia, it’s worth going. Got out of there at $20 for two people. And if you’re in DC needing a hip place for dinner with good food and excellent service, recently I’ve been a big fan of IndeBleu. It’s Indian-French fusion, decor is straight out of a W Hotel, and the staff were brought in from European charm schools. Outstanding, though a bit pricey. The biggest driver of cost is that the menu is set up as four courses. I keep it affordable by ordering a couple of second courses, using one as my main. For what it’s worth people seem to like my restaurant recommendations. A large contingent of my office came back from Miami…

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Air Canada Aeroplan Spinoff May Be Imminent

by Gary Leff

air canada
May 18 2005

Air Canada may be on the verge of spinning off its Aeroplan frequent flyer program with details being finalized as soon as the end of this week. They tried this a couple years ago, but details of their bankruptcy and reorganization financing stood in the way. Word is the program is being valued at about US$1.18 billion, down slightly from earlier estimates.

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Fly Free Faster Bonus is Back

by Gary Leff

nwa-planes
May 18 2005

Northwest’s annual Fly Free Faster promotion is back. You can register now. Fly Free Faster 5 offers 10,000 bonus miles for completing a qualifying activity and earning five partner credits between June 1 and September 30 (so hold your guns and don’t go flying Northwest yet!). Qualifying activities include: taking two domestic roundtrips or one international roundtrip (or four or two one-ways, respectively) on Northwest or KLM signing up and paying the fee for a Northwest Visa purchasing a WorldClub membership I’ve had the Northwest Visa and Northwest Business Visa in the past. I’m going to sign up for the Northwest Signature Visa, a new product, and earn the 15,000 bonus miles for the $90 annual fee. You can earn two partner credits for each of: new service with MCI, EarthLink, Nextel, or T-Mobile real…

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Forced Rental Car Upsells?

by Gary Leff

rental car
May 17 2005

Christopher Elliott writes in the New York Times about rental car companies claiming to be out of the class of car a customer reserves and attempting to charge an upgrade fee for the next level vehicle. This has never happened to me, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone. After all, that’s the very idea of a reservation, a point hammered home in an episode of Seinfeld Agent: I’m sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment. Jerry: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation? Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars. Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation. Agent: I know why we have reservations. Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See,…

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People find this site in the strangest ways

by Gary Leff

united-plane
May 16 2005

Yesterday someone came to this website while searching for Singapore girls peeing. Today someone found me looking for united airlines Stewardess strippers calendar. At least in the latter case I help out. The website is down but here’s the Google cache. Here’s the news story: [F]ive women, ranging in age from 55 to 64, posed for a 2006 calendar that depicts them in various states of undress in front of a vintage plane, on a park bench and on a plane’s wing, among other locations. Reflecting a mix of humor and anger, it was released to coincide with a bankruptcy court’s approval this week of United’s plan to terminate $9.8 billion in employee pension obligations. While United is never named nor its airplanes shown, every photograph in “Stewardesses Stripped (Of Their Pension?)” is accompanied by…

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