Monthly Archives for March 2017.
I used to pay a lot of attention to Star Alliance member Aegean, the little Greek airline that could. That’s because I got a status match to Gold status from them back when British Airways bought british midland and they were matching bmi status.
Aegean status used to be lifetime which I thought was great only they decided that lifetime meant something different to them than it did to me.
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.
pparently earning 76 British Airways points per dollar signing up for a dating site was legitimate, but an advertised short-term offer of 150 miles was ‘invalid’.
Scott McCartney in the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the mileage-earning deal’s demise.
Emirates has arranged to let customers use electronics up until boarding. Royal Jordanian has become an airline of poets. Sadly their latest doesn’t begin, “there once was a DHS Secretary from Nantucket..”
Alaska Airlines announced that they’ll be eliminating the Virgin America brand sometime in 2019. Along with that they’ve made several product change announcements.
US airline frequent flyer programs charge about 45,000 miles roundtrip in economy for a saver award and 75,000 or 80,000 miles in first class. That’s actually really expensive, compared to paid ticket prices much of the time (not least of which because when Hawaii tickets are at their most expensive, saver awards are tough to get). And these US airlines charge the same number of miles from the West Coast as the East Coast.
Fortunately, we can do better — even for flying American and United.
Arguably the worst place in any US airport is Washington National’s Gate 35X. I’ve said that the previous administration could have closed the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and just moved terrorism suspects to this gate.
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.
Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card that covers your purchases and your travels when things go wrong. How do some of the premium cards compare in this way?
Jay Sorenson has an interesting new report (.pdf) declaring ‘revenue is now king’ that revenue-based programs are the new ‘it’ in loyalty. The piece begins by citing all sorts of reasons why revenue matters to a company, which is of course both true and unenlightening.
While mileage alone doesn’t incentivize loyalty, the goal of a marketing program isn’t to ‘reward customers who spend the most’ it’s to move the needle on incremental business .
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 »
