Monthly Archives for April 2021.
The State Department announced a ‘do not travel’ recommendation for 80% of the world’s countries. They are explicit that this decision is not their assessment of risk for those countries, but a change meant to mirror what the CDC already says. Indeed the CDC’s current guidance does not match actual risk.
However this is the wrong direction for travel guidance, and it’s the CDC that should be updating risk assessment.
Travel has been picking up, and airlines haven’t always scaled their call center capacity to match. Add in some bad weather – take Denver, for instance, on Monday where there was snow and more delays than any other airport in the world – and wait times to speak to an airline agent really grow. This has been an issue across airlines, and even wait times for elite frequent flyers who get call center priorities have been longer than usual at times lately.
American Airlines customers, especially, reported long wait times on Monday and into Tuesday – 5 to 8 hours, even – and customers are bringing receipts.
Two weeks ago Radisson hotels shared that Radisson Rewards would split into two geographically-distinct programs on June 17, 2021. This is being required by the U.S. government to keep data on Americans separated within the Chinese-owned chain.
When this happens there will also be changes to award redemption, and there will be status matching and points transfer between the programs.
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.
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.
What American has been doing in economy is providing a bag with small bottle of water, cookie, and sanitizer wipe. Instead beginning June 1 you’ll be able to have water, juice, or canned soft drinks plus pretzels or Biscoff cookies. And starting this summer they will bring back sale of alcohol and buy on board food in coach.
United Airlines is woke but American Airlines wants you to know that they aren’t just opposed to voting law changes that target people of color, they are “taking a stand..for LGBTQ rights and hate crimes legislation.
Last week American Airlines held ‘Crew News’ conversations between executives and its pilot and flight attendant groups. They featured both introductory remarks by Chairman and CEO Doug Parker, along with questions by front line employees answered by Parker and members of management brought in as subject matter experts. A recording of these meetings was shared with View From The Wing.
Here are 10 insights from these discussions regarding American Airlines strategy.
At an American Airlines employee meeting last week, a pilot asked CEO Doug Parker why the company needed to interject itself into political issues – like state election law – to please people in media and on twitter. After all, customers fly American to get from point A to point B, not for its position on voting rules, so why upset people on the other side?
Capital One has done more than any other issuer, I think, to improve the benefits across several cards but most especially the Venture card which has a 100,000 mile initial bonus offer right now. On top of other new benefits, Capital One introduced transfer of its miles to several airline programs at the end of 2018.
Now Capital One has introduced new airline transfer partners and improved the rate that mileage transfers to some of those programs, and provided new details on its forthcoming network of airline lounges and new travel booking portal.
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 »
