During the American Airlines second quarter earnings call they offered several metrics of success for their AAdvantage loyalty program. They offered that redemptions are up; their elite population has increased; yield growth among their elites outpaces the airline’s average; co-brand credit card acquisition and spend is up.
What’s going on here?
Air Canada placed a 71 year old woman and a man half her age into a single hotel room when they both misconnected after a flight delay, even though the two passengers didn’t know each other.
I wrote last fall about how American Airlines was losing money flying passengers and also covered earlier in the year how all of their profit was accounted for by the AAdvantage frequent flyer program. American Airlines makes money selling frequent flyer miles to banks.
This was notable because it underscored just how badly the passenger operation was performing financially.
Bolivian media is reporting that the South American country’s only non-stop flight to the U.S. is being eliminated. American Airlines is dropping Miami – Santa Cruz, Bolivia at the end of November. This comes after backtracking on putting the Boeing 737 MAX on the more than 3200 mile route.
Video shows the joy ride of a two year old boy who received injuries on a baggage conveyor belt behind the Spirit Airlines ticket counter in Atlanta. His mother was printing boarding passes from a kiosk Monday afternoon when she put her son down “for a moment.” However it was “too late.”
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.
Two years ago Equifax data was breached and your information was probably stolen. They’ve reached a settlement that will net hundreds of millions for government agencies and potentially a little bit for you — either 10 years of credit monitoring or up to $125. You can also get reimbursed for actual expenses and even your time.
You can check if you’re eligible for money (because your data was included in the breach) and if you are file a claim by January 22. In addition there’s a Fairmont hotels settlement to sign up for.
The punch list for the airport ballooned to 550,000 items. The original $2.6 billion project is now projected to cost $8.25 billion.
In the meantime the train station runs one ghost train a day “to keep the air moving.” The airport hotel has had staff for years “forlornly dusting rooms and turning on taps to keep the water supply moving.”
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.
Washington DC is suing Marriott over deceptive resort fees.
In some sense it was strange to go after just Marriott whose practices are no worse than the rest of the industry. It turns out that while the attorneys generals of all 50 states and the District of Columbia were investigating resort fees, they had broken out the work and D.C. was directly involved with investigating Marriott. Now that D.C. broke away from the group and filed a case on its own, it’s not surprising to see additional defections.
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 »
