News and notes from around the interweb:
- I guess you don’t get if you don’t ask… (It’s formula-driven but this is still silly.)
Incredibly tempting upgrade offer.
byu/Many-Nose4266 inamericanairlines - Rewards Travel Now: Too Many Points, Not Enough Seats (NYT)
The fundamental problem is simple: too many points chasing too few seats. “What we’ve seen over time is a lot of miles being printed, and we haven’t seen a concomitant increase in the number of unsold airline seats available for redemption,” said Gary Leff, an airline industry expert who writes about airlines and loyalty programs on his blog, View From the Wing.
…“For almost any other business in the world, marketing is an expensive line item. For airlines, it’s a massive profit center,” Mr. Leff said. “They’re able to take the currency they’ve created and lend it to other businesses for a fee because people want it so much,” he added, referring to the way that airlines sell their points to credit card companies and other businesses, which use them as consumer incentives.
…“Rely less on the airline to just offer you a good deal,” Mr. Leff said. “Often you want two cards: one that earns multiple points in the category where you spend the most, and one that pairs in the same ecosystem from the same bank that earns 1.5 or two points per dollar.” This means using two cards from the same bank — for example, pairing Chase’s Sapphire Preferred with its Freedom Unlimited card to pool their earned points.
…Mr. Leff recommends booking what’s available on your primary airline, and then watching for better options. Since most programs now waive change fees on award tickets, you can switch if partner space opens up. Just note that once you transfer flexible points to an airline, you can’t transfer them back.
- 25% more Avios were earned than redeemed last year.
- While you’re picking up a cheap Hyatt elite night in Las Vegas (and probably actually staying somewhere else)…
An adult Star Wars spoof called 'The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody' — featuring dancers performing striptease routines dressed in Star Wars costumes — is coming to the Rio on May the 4th. pic.twitter.com/xNZvR6dFqz
— Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) March 1, 2025
- Fair, but Illy > Starbucks > Fresh Brew
Sending Hate to whoever designed this mug.
byu/littyinthecity69 inunitedairlines - No, because they have executive memberships (couldn’t get approved for the Reserve card).
Posts from the delta
community on Reddit
I hope someone has contacted the health department about the mice at the Sky Club.
Well done, Gary! Excellent quotes and advice in the (failing) New York Times! Tell those hippie woke liberal commie pinkos over there how to play the miles and points game. I trust your judgement far more than the corporate shills over at TPG. Woop woop!
A mouse: the first reason I have seen to let dogs into the lounges.
Ref the “cheap” upgrade price to 1st class –
Southwest has a similar weird algorithm when I print my boarding pass at the kiosk – I’m A List Preferred so very often I’m holding a boarding position in the A16-20 range. But I still get an “offer” to upgrade to A1-15 for amounts ranging from $280 to even $400 last week on my SAN-SLC flight. No idea who in their right mind would do the offer…..ha.
The $2896 could actually be really valuable for someone who’s 2800 Loyalty Points away for some valuable elite tier but doesn’t have time to go on another trip. Or maybe AA just changed the decimal a couple of spots and it was actually supposed to be $28.96.
On the too many miles chasing too few seats for awards you clearly illustrate that the airlines badly need to make more seats available. Thanks for doing that.