Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for September 2015.

United Unveils New Domestic First Class Seat: Wider, With an iPad Holder

by Gary Leff

Sep 10 2015

United debuted their new narrowbody premium (first class) seat which week starts flying on a single Airbus A319 next week, continuing rolling out across the Airbus fleet in the fall (although the retrofit won’t be completed until 2017), and work will begin on ‘many’ 737s and 757s throughout 2016. It appears that while over 200 planes in United’s fleet will get the new seats not every narrowbody will have it. I assume that has to do with projected retirements from the fleet.

The seat appears to add half an inch of width compared to the current Airbus first class seat, at least that’s my read although United claims the cushion width represents a greater increase than that.

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Chase’s Big Cost Advantage Makes it Possible to Fund Rich Rewards, Re-Sign Partners

by Gary Leff

Sep 09 2015

The biggest long-term threat to rewards credit cards is declining interchange fees, as the cost to process transactions falls each dollar pushed through a card’s network is less valuable and thus less worth incentivizing with miles or other rebates.

And indeed, Chase’s interchange fee income fell 2% in the first half of 2015 despite greater charge volume. But Chase has a deal with Visa that allows it to get aggressive hanging onto partners and bringing new ones on — and it’s highly-incentivized to do so.

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United, Delta, or American Elite? Status Match to Copa and Get Free United Club Access!

by Gary Leff

Sep 09 2015

For a long time the way to get free United Club access has been to match status to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. They’ve been inconsistent over the years in how they’ve accepted matches (first via email and then via web form), how long they’ve taken to reply (quickly vs months), and what status they’ve been willing to match (sometimes United status, sometimes only competitor alliances, sometimes only top tier status). But it’s status that lasts two years.

It turns out there’s another Star Alliance program offering status matches, and there are successful reports from United and American elites both of getting matches that allow for United Club access.

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