Monthly Archives for February 2025.
Always and everywhere poor service delivery is because of management not because of flight attendants.
Southwest Airlines and JetBlue rumors have been swirling all weekend. It’s not clear exactly what is going on, but some expect that there will be an announcement on Monday with markets closed for Presidents Day. Another rumor – without a JetBlue component – is that Southwest could be announcing a 10% layoff.
Passengers had been told after takeoff that “they would not be permitted to leave their seats” for the entire flight due to weather-related turbulence expected for the full flight. Cabin crew would not be getting up, either – and “that includes to unlock the bathroom doors.”
What Bilt has done is found a way to solve the distribution problem. Card companies pay airlines billions of dollars for help finding customers. Bilt spun up from scratch, created a brand and pipeline for finding customers that partners are interested in reaching. They want to earn Bilt’s points and benefits. And that is worth billions of dollars.
They want to cram in as many passengers as possible. Every inch that’s used for something else – like lavatories and gallies – is seen as money left on the table.
A Marriott Courtyard has a sign posted on every floor that ‘outside food and drink’ is not allowed. Like a movie theater, if you want to eat at the hotel you have to buy your food from them. You can’t carry in food (or leftovers from where you went to dinner), and you can’t order DoorDash either.
Bilt Rewards has opened a cafe on the ground floor of their headquarters. It offers really good coffee and pastries. But this is more of a to go place, there’s no space for lounging, and they don’t have staff to talk to you about their program or credit card. So I’m not sure what the value proposition is?
Southwest Airlines is trying to tailor their product to get customers to spend more. They’re going to introduce assigned seats and extra legroom seats. You’ll no longer pick your own seat when you board. This means changes to their credit cards. At competitor airlines, cards usually come with boarding benefits. Southwest’s premium card offers a statement credit for buying earlier boarding, which gets you a better seat assignment. They’ve talked about card benefits needing to evolve with the way they’re changing the airline, but haven’t talked specifics. I haven’t seen much notice of this, but Southwest Airlines has posted how their credit card customers will be treated under new assigned seating and premium seating that the carrier plans to roll out. All Rapid Rewards Credit Cards will include new complimentary seating and boarding benefits, as…
Most of the time, I wonder what the lines to get into Centurion lounges do to brand affinity – someone gets the card and they finally go to use their benefit and it isn’t a premium experience. Failing health inspections seems worse?
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.
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 »
