In 1989 David Hasselhof stood atop the Berlin Wall belting out “Looking for Freedom.” Less than a year later East Germans were finally free.
Thirty one years after David Hasselhof stood between East and West Berlin the East’s old airport may finally be freed as the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, replacing Berlin Tegel. It’s a costly reminder of East German-style planning.
The question is whether Marriott is making a big mistake with such a modest promotion as hotel occupancy and rates begin to fall. This was happening even before coronavirus. The argument in favor of spending very little on promotion marketing is that bonus points aren’t going to move the needle when people are scared to travel (it’s why airfares went up after 9/11, only those who absolutely had to travel were taking to the skies).
Samoa is requiring all passengers entering the country or transiting through it to undergo medical screening three days prior to travel to the country. The government is also enforcing reductions in international air service.
Meanwhile Micronesia banned travelers from any country where there was a confirmed coronavirus case.
Southeast Asian low cost carrier AirAsia has been a success (except for their restaurant chain). AirAsiaX, the long haul version of the airline, has struggled.
The airline had plenty of empty seats even before coronavirus, so they’re selling a one year all you can fly pass for 499 MYR (about US$118) offering “Australia, Japan, India and more.”
Delta has announced new routes and flights out of Seattle showing that they aren’t going to take American’s re-invigorated partnership with Alaska Airlines lying down.
Competition is good, and has been great for Seattle residents since Delta and Alaska began their breakup and Delta built up their own hub at the Pacific Northwest airport. Delta will grow their Seattle service to 190 peak daily departures to 56 destinations for summer 2020, with new service coming beyond that as well.
Most of the readouts on Anderson’s tenure will repeat the falsehood that Amtrak is covering almost all of its operatings costs and will be profitable in 2020. To accomplish this chicanery Amtrak counts government subsidies from states as ‘passenger revenue’ and excludes depreciation expenses (20% of total expenses).
In fact Amtrak’s 2019 losses are about 35 times greater than reported. In other words they inflate Amtrak’s revenue and ignore costs in a creative accounting scheme to make Amtrak look like a financially responsible operation.
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.
Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal has 280,000 frequent flyer members in the U.S. market, growing at about 12,000 members per month, and now serves 9 North American cities with 81 weekly flights. They’re even launching Boston to the Azores in June. And they acknowledge that their Miles & Go program “hasn’t been as relevant as it should be.” They aim to change that.
They are offering status matches up to their top elite tier, mileage on sale for less than 9/10ths of a cent apiece, 25% discounts on award redemption, and miles just for joining the program and referring others to join as well.
American Airlines launches their new uniform with about 50,000 employees putting on their new attire today. This comes after the new 2016 Twin Hill uniforms led to thousands of complaints about irritation and worse from another manufacturer.
As a result of these issues American’s employees have been allowed to use a makeshift combination of old uniforms, including old US Airways uniforms and some off the shelf options. This will be the first time, hopefully, that all legacy American Airlines and US Airways employees all have the same look and keep it.
American Airlines has come out with their own convoluted copycat of waiving change fees on new ticket purchases. It is simultaneously less generous and also more strategically useful than what JetBlue and Alaska have done in the face of weak bookings resulting from coronavirus fears.
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 »
