Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for April 2023.

British Airways Introduces Points Planes, Flights They Refuse To Sell For Cash

by Gary Leff

Apr 13 2023

British Airways is launching ‘Avios Only’ flights – flights they aren’t selling for cash, just making available for redemption.

More airlines should offer more availability once they properly understand the value in delivering to members over the long-term. Programs should be willing to spend more with their airline on seats, to avoid killing their golden goose – in the U.S. the biggest airline loyalty programs are worth 11 figures, and generate $5 billion-plus annually in revenue. Frustrated members reduce that long-term value proposition

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Delta Will Fly To London Gatwick Airport To Stick It To JetBlue And Norse Atlantic

by Gary Leff

first class seats
Apr 12 2023

Before the pandemic, when Norwegian was operating the route, Delta planned to fly to Gatwick using a Boeing 757 without Delta Suites. It was totally obvious what they were doing, with a product well-matched to Norwegian’s.

This was supposed to start in May 2020, but didn’t happen because of the pandemic – and because Norwegian ceased its transatlantic flying. Now that JetBlue offers a real business class on the route, Delta has upgraded to a Boeing 767.

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The Truth About Each Airline And Hotel Chain, In A Nutshell

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Apr 12 2023

This is my rough guide to thinking about airlines and hotels. This can be useful, because it helps to understand announcements and changes that each one makes and also for transparency as you read my own writing. Specifically, these are my rough biases or frames as I think about each of the major U.S. airlines and hotel chains. I love some things about each one, but each also has its flaws.

Overall I fly American Airlines most, but I do fly everyone, and I stay at Hyatt most and recommend Marriott as a primary ‘backup’ chain since Hyatt isn’t everywhere you might travel.

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Aer Lingus Moves To JFK Terminal 7, Not Good For Passengers

by Gary Leff

plane docked
Apr 12 2023

The Irish carrier often offers inexpensive business class hops across the Pond, connecting to single cabin service in Europe. It has a codeshare partnership with American’s partner JetBlue, so they’ve sold tickets for onward connections at JFK on JetBlue. It was convenient, then, to have Aer Lingus in JFK terminal 5 co-located with JetBlue. With U.S. immigration pre-clearance in Ireland you get off the flight in New York as though it were domestic, and don’t even need to clear security to connect.

That’s going away, since starting April 27 Aer Lingus will be moving to JFK’s terminal 7 which means changing terminals for connections to JetBlue and therefore also re-clearing security.

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Corrupt oneworld Airline SriLankan May Finally Be Privatized

by Gary Leff

Apr 11 2023

Sri Lanka is one of the three largest recipients of lending from China. Their basic problem is spending more money than they have, and then limiting further what they have through regulation. The government there decided farms needed to switch to organic practices, banning chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which led to lower yields without being offset by higher prices. Food shortages followed.

The government needs to curtail its spending and devalue its currency. Part of that means reducing subsidies of inefficient businesses, that have been kept as corrupt enterprises to benefit powerful elites.

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Women Are Traveling To Europe Because American Dating Is Awful – But It’s A Trap

by Gary Leff

Apr 11 2023

The New York Times runs a trend piece on women traveling abroad to find romance. They say that dating in the United States is awful, and meeting men abroad is much better – that people marry later so the dating pool isn’t limited over 30; that men are more serious; that potential mates are more adventurous (while in the U.S. all men are the same archetypes).

The first thing to know about any trend piece is that there isn’t really a trend, although the pieces themselves might create one. All you need is a little anecdata.

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