Monthly Archives

Apr 08 2016

Shareholders vote today on Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood. It’s a decent deal for Starwood shareholders, though with Marriott trading at $66 as of this writing, 0.8 shares of Marriott plus $21 cash isn’t as good as the binding and fully financed earlier deal of $78 cash from Anbang. It’s a good deal for Marriott customers, who have more places to earn and redeem at. And remember that there are more Marriott Rewards members than Starwood Preferred Guest members.

I’ve suggested that one thing Marriott could do is start over from a loyalty perspective, create a new program that they move both Marriott Rewards members and Starwood Preferred Guest members into. (I first heard this suggestion from Randy Petersen who noted it’s how Starwood Preferred Guest itself was born out of Westin Premier and Sheraton Club International.) Mommy Points shares scuttlebutt that suggests this idea could be under consideration.

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Apr 08 2016

JP Power is out with its 2016 ranking of hotel loyalty programs and media seems to be taking it at face value without digging into the methodology — they report the rankings without understanding that it’s garbage in, garbage out. And that’s dangerous, as illustrated by industry site Skift:

“Interestingly, the Starwood Preferred Guest program, beloved among frequent travelers, ranked near the bottom, and it’s never fared well in past J.D. Powers’ reports. So, why is it so admired, and why does Marriott want it so badly?”

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Apr 08 2016

Marriott is buying Starwood for the increased clout it gives them in negotiations — with partners, online travel agencies, and everyone else. That’s according to Marriott Executive Chairman Bill Marriott.

From the beginning the narrative around the deal has been that the size and scale of Marriott would help them in negotiating with online travel agencies. And by expanding their footprint they’d also be able to capture more corporate deals, and a greater share of spend from each deal.

Since the deal was struck, and Starwood’s customers started vocally expressing concerns, the idea of acquiring Starwood’s customers became a focal part of the narrative.

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Apr 07 2016

After American’s pilots staged a work slowdown during the carrier’s bankruptcy, it was clear that CEO Tom Horton was going to have to go. United’s pilots made it impossible for CEO Jim Goodwin to stay on 15 years ago.

Here’s the thing. It’s often not the wages that’ll kill a company. It’s the work rules.

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Apr 07 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Apr 07 2016

United’s Jeff Smisek, Delta’s Richard Anderson, and American’s Doug Parker started crowing a little over a year ago about having to compete against Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar – that it was unfair these Gulf carriers got subsidies and they didn’t.

While it became clear that the case made against the Gulf carriers was itself a fraud (which isn’t to say there haven’t been subsidies), that the US airlines have themselves been massively subsidized, and that it was a case of selective outrage (not complaining about other state-subsidized partners, including ones part-owned by US airlines), the cry over the Big 3 Gulf carriers somewhat subsided.

Except, oddly, from Doug Parker..

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Apr 07 2016

The founders of L’Avion, all business class airline to Paris, were hemorrhaging but managed to luck into a deal to sell to British Airways (the airline is now OpenSkies). Not content to have gotten out ahead, these same people started all over with La Compagnie.

Richard Branson seems to say he wants to pull the trick. He says he won’t let Virgin America die.

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Apr 07 2016

Earlier in the week I wrote that an Air India pilot refused to show up for one of the airline’s inaugural flights because he wanted to fly to Delhi instead.

Now comes word that an Air India pilot delayed a flight to the Maldives for 2.5 hours because he was insisting that the airline schedule a particular female co-pilot to fly with him.

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Apr 06 2016

Alaska Airlines beat out JetBlue to buy Virgin America. That means JetBlue won’t build a big California presence out of Virgin’s San Francisco hub and Los Angeles operation.

But JetBlue still wants new customers in California, and in their home state of New York. They want Virgins.

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Apr 06 2016

One of my all-time favorite songs is Roxy Music’s 1982 single ‘More Than This’ from their albom Avalon (it was covered by 10,000 Maniacs in 1997). I loved it as a kid, and am even more emotionally tied to it because of Bill Murray’s karaoke rendition in Lost in Translation.

Roxy Music’s Brian Eno recorded perhaps the greatest muzak ever, Music for Airports, in 1978.

Chris Holbrook asks in the New York Times why airports are ‘designed for everyone but the passenger’ and laments that many architects have forgotten the “obligation to please the people who use their space.” Holbrook begins by recounting the story of Brian Eno caring about the experience for people inside the airport, which airports often pay only lip service to. But it’s not at all surprising why this is.

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