Monthly Archives for June 2022.
El Al is spinning off its frequent flyer program at a $500 million valuation. The entire airline, including the frequent flyer program, has a market cap of less than $180 million. They’re not alone. American’s frequent flyer program was appraised at up to $30 billion (and they borrowed $10 billion against it) while their market cap is less than $9 billion.
One piece of coverage of the new Bilt Rewards travel portal struck me as an odd stretch, that Chase’s travel portal is better because of Chase statement credits that have nothing to do with their travel portal. Say what?
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.
Bilt has launched a travel portal so that – in addition to transferring points to partners like American, United, and Hyatt – Bilt Rewards members can book their preferred trip (whatever it is) and pay with points instead of cash.
Each point is valued at 1.25 cents apiece when spent this way. That beats most credit card portal values, and matches Chase with its Sapphire Preferred Card.
One woman in Atlanta – 89 years ago, and just out of the hospital the day before – found herself stranded after a mix up on Delta Air Lines. She seemingly paid the pet in cabin fee but the flight wasn’t updated to reflect the pet in the cabin. Delta says the problem was her dog barked.
She was asked to leave the aircraft. She showed her pet in cabin receipt – but wasn’t allowed back on and she’d made the classic error of putting her medications in her checked baggage.
Between 40 and 60 passengers on board a Carnival Cruise ship in the waters off New York brawled across five levels of the ship. The fight began after a threesome among passengers led to cheating allegations and jealousy.
A correspondent shares that the renovations to the kitchen at the main Delta Sky Club in DTW has been completed, and that it features mostly new furniture with dividers designed to offer privacy. There’s also now outlets at nearly every seat “though some aren’t yet operational.” The four cubicles remain for now [as they do in Cincinnati], although cubicles aren’t part of the latest Sky Club design concepts. …The comfortable adjustable office chairs in each cubicle have been replaced by regular chairs that aren’t suitable for desks…the coat/jacket hooks at each cubicle were removed.. Still no snazzy phone booths or pods, as we’re seeing at other newly built or recently renovated lounges in the Sky Club system. Also, the bar is still the temporary staffed bar with only complimentary booze. No premium drinks here, which…
Spirit Airlines sent me their release indicating that tomorrow will not be the day that shareholders vote on whether to sell to Frontier Airlines.
Instead the shareholder meeting will be adjourned and reconvened on July 8. Spirit wouldn’t do this if all their ducks were lined up to gain approval for the Frontier deal that their board has endorsed.
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.
Bernie Sanders, like all of us, has some valid gripes about air travel today. He’s come out with a set of solutions he’d like the Department of Transportation to impose through new regulation. This includes forcing airlines to skip crucial maintenance, and requiring flight attendants to work when they’re sick with Covid-19.
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 »
