Monthly Archives for September 2022.
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.
Just a few weeks ago the prospect of trying to coordinate changes to Europe awards would have given me heartburn. There was simply very little award space, save for a handful of airline and routes that I used as ‘worst-case scenarios’ when helping people to redeem their miles. And I didn’t want worst-case scenarios traveling with my wife and daughter.
Fortunately things are really looking up for those of us looking to use points for travel abroad, especially to Europe.
Garuda has now filed for bankruptcy in the U.S.. A Chapter 15 filing prevents any creditor lawsuits here, as well as seizure of assets. Garuda restructured $9.5 billion in debt this year, and has $5.1 billion remaining. Boeing did not participate in the restructuring in Indonesia.
he Bilt Mastercard, the no annual fee card that lets you earn points paying rent at no cost (up to $100,000 per year) and earns double points on travel and triple points on dining, now earns even more one day a month.
Dubbed “Bilt Rent Day,” on the first of every month Bilt is offering up to 6x points, free points, and Virgin cruise discounts.
Software engineer Saarah Sareshwala was flying Southwest Airlines from Orlando to Phoenix on Saturday. She expected an uneventful trip after an enjoyable ‘women in computing’ conference. She walked away with a head injury, and she’s left shaking her head trying to understand why.
Ms. Sareshwala’s husband took to social media to detail what happened when the passenger seated in front of her slammed his seatback into her head while she was asleep against it.
A Delta Air Lines passenger shares what happened when they rang their flight attendant call bell to ask for a drink while flying from Atlanta to Boston recently.
Seated in extra legroom coach, which offers free cocktails, they asked for a Jack Daniels and Coke during the drink cart pass through the cabin. Half an hour later they wanted another drink so they pushed the button about their seat. It lit up. About five minutes later a crewmember showed up and declined their request.
There are numerous rules that go along with flying so-called ‘free’ (there are often fees for international travel, and for some there can be tax consequences as well).
One of the stranger ones on American Airlines is that employees cannot book conflicting paid travel and non-rev travel. In fact, they aren’t even allowed to list for non-rev travel on American is they have paid or mileage award tickets with the same origin and destination within 24 hours on another airline like Delta. This actually makes American Airlines less reliable for customers.
Research suggests that traveling abroad while young and still forming worldviews and spending time speaking with ordinary people at your destination appears to foster Twain’s notion of becoming more open-minded and empathetic towards others without respect to geographic boundaries.
Not all travel meets these conditions, of course.
Chase earns over $5 billion in revenue from its credit card portfolio per year, but they’ve made it a corporate priority to build a product that’s intended to kill the credit card business. And CEO Jamie Dimon threatened to fire senior leaders who get in the way.
Delta Air Lines was the second airline – behind only Qatar Airways – to launch business class suites with doors into commercial service. American Airlines is going to enclosed suites with their Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A321XLR new aircraft deliveries in 2024. British Airways has been putting doors on business class seats, and Air France is going to be doing the same.
United Airlines isn’t going to be left behind in this race. In fact they’ve been vetting new seats with doors for a new Polaris product, as I reported this past spring.
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 »
