Monthly Archives for May 2015.
United announced today that ‘we’ will invest over $500 million in renovating terminals 7 and 8 at LAX. The ‘we’ is mostly Los Angeles World Airports.
As far as I can tell, ‘we’ get a new United Club with an outdoor deck and a consolidated security checkpoint. Here are the renderings, see for yourself…!
US Airways credit card-issued companion certificates are still around, requiring travel to be completed by the end of the year. But with the American-US Airways merger progressing, there aren’t expected to *be* any US Airways flights during the last 10 weeks or so of the year. What will happen to these certificates?
The truth is that the final details haven’t been worked out yet, though it’s clear they’ll be honored. Nonetheless, after talking with American, it seems pretty clear how this will work.
The Christian Science Monitor covers JetBlue’s desire to expand into Cuba now that many legal restrictions on doing business have been lifted, and US citizens can go with a wink and a nod. It’s got a good start – the low-cost carrier will begin weekly flights from New York to Havana in July, and it operates two routes out of Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in partnership with a Cuban charter operator. …JetBlue wants to be ready to expand beyond the weekly flights. The ‘Cuba boom’ may be a bit overhyped — some might think that Cuba is just a Caribbean destination that doesn’t yet have the infrastructure to support many visitors — but proximity to the US and precisely that it doesn’t yet have this infrastructure is what makes it an exciting destination for…
A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
Via the UK’s Independent, a woman on an Air Asia flight from Singapore to Sydney wrote a letter to the passenger in 15A. What I had initially thought to be a routine flight turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience – and it was all because of you. …Despite my common economy seat, you offered me a full back massage by repeatedly kicking the back of chair. To date, I have yet to regain full mobility of the lower half of my body. But since I am single, I suppose I don’t have much use for it anyway. I did not pay for the in-flight entertainment package and I was worried that I might get bored. But my concerns were unnecessary. You were talking so loudly, as if your friend was seated…
A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
United’s beta website is now up and open to the public. You can poke around and see whether you like the new more modern look, or whether the functionality feels a bit restricted to you as well? And see if you think they’re copying Delta a bit too much in the aesthetic…
American has shared the schedule for moving to a single reservation system, which would mean the end of ‘US Airways’ flights. This will matter for reservations, upgrades and flight choices. Here’s the schedule they’re sharing, and what to expect in the meantime.
The Southwest and United card deals with Chase are coming up soon. These relationships are getting very expensive for the banks, Delta-Amex is a $2 billion deal.. and that renegotiation left American Express paying more and getting less. What will consumers likely see as more banks bid for relationships with these two major airlines?
Wyndham’s new award chart is now in effect. All Wyndham Rewards participating hotel properties now cost 15,000 points. They’ve rolled back the price increases of the past two years for the top end hotels and nearly tripled the price of the least expensive hotels. Wyndham is a large chain, with properties clustered at the lower end. They’re closer in size to Hilton, Marriott, and IHG than they are to Hyatt and Starwood. There are a limited number of top-end properties where this change will be of benefit, but for those it looks like a real win — while it won’t be much of a win for those who look for points to use at Baymont Inns and Days Inn properties. However for the next six months Wyndham Visa cardholders get the best of both worlds…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
