Monthly Archives for April 2020.
The impressions and beliefs we’re forming through this crisis are going to carry forward, and that will have long-lasting effects on travel brands. Here’s an early stab at brands that rise in status based on how they’re handling the crisis, and those that fall in status as well.
New hotel occupancy and room rate data shows that things got even worse for hotels last week than they were the week before when hotels hit what was then their lowest occupancy rate – ever.
It seemed like things couldn’t get any worse, and then last week happened.
Amazon originally built out server capacity to handle the huge order surge for the Christmas holidays, and found that they had spare server capacity the rest of the year – and a huge capability in managing servers. So they expanded into the adjacent space of cloud computing (Amazon Web Services).
They’ve also built out a delivery and logistics shipping capacity to handle their own surges, and that gave them tons of extra capacity. Amazon delivers more of its own packages than other shipping services combined. They delivered over 3.5 billion packages last year, making their own internal shipping business two-thirds the size of UPS.
The lede to a piece in the New York Times on the bungled initial response to the novel coronavirus appears to suggest that the virus was first brought to New York by a Qatar Airways flight. It even further appears to suggest that if only New York had done a better job containing that first case, things would be different today. These claims make little sense.
If airlines are going to receive a bailout, taxpayers should receive some assurance of recovering the funds when times are good. And any deal should be structured to incentivize airlines to get out from under partial nationalization as quickly as possible.
The Treasury Department is asking airlines seeking bailout funds to detail the economics of their frequent flyer programs as one source of collateral.
Elite status is one of the most powerful motivators for frequent customers to stick with a travel brand. When programs extend status outright during this crisis, they’re giving up a tool to encourage business when customers are able to come back. So they’re going to have to reach into a different bag of tricks.
Alaska Airlines is planning to join the oneworld alliance and is scaling its partnership with American Airlines back up. Here’s some inside scoop on why American had been cutting ties with Alaska, and how they changed their mind.
The rejuvenated partnership continues to build even in difficulty times. As of today you can now earn redeemable milesand also elite status miles when crediting flights from one airline to the other airline’s progam.
Marriott is extending current elite status through February 2022. And while they had already paused expiration of points through August they have extended that out to February 2021.
Citi is revamping its Premier and Preferred cards. Citi Premier gets new earning categories, and spending points on paid travel will no longer be as lucrative (making points-to-miles transfers the only good option). Citi Preferred is getting new bonus categories.
Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is 16 miles from the city center of Wuhan, capital of the Hubei province. As the epicenter of the initial COVID-19 breakout, it has been shut down since January 23. The airport was disinfected on Friday.
The airport, which is a focus city for China Eastern, China Southern, and Air China, re-opened today. It has historically had non-stop flights to New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Paris, Dubai, Sydney and other destinations in Europe and Asia.
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 »
