American Airlines stock has plummeted. The price of fuel is way up. The markets haven’t liked their big capital expenses, in new aircraft and facilities.
Their third quarter earnings call is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, October 25. And they need to walk in with a narrative Wall Street might like.
During the airline’s earnings call yesterday CEO Ed Bastian says Delta is now up to monetizing “about 60%” of their first class seats. So they’re behind goal (though they’re apparently ahead of their peers who are likely still in the 40’s).
One way they plan to increase the number of seats they’re upselling to customers, rather than offering as complimentary upgrades, is to offer payment by miles as an alternative to cash.
In a post-9/11 world it’s important not to challenge a flight attendant’s authority because you may wind up confronted by law enforcement. I’ve seen passengers express concern when a flight attendant moved their stuff in the overhead bin, and immediately face an “are we going to have a problem today?” response.
So it doesn’t surprise me that a situation with a 71 year old grandmother flying with her grandchildren ended badly.
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What’s striking is how much availability exists on Cathay’s routes between the US and Asia. In fact with so many ways to get to Hong Kong there’s usually a means to do it for the family with some flexibility if you’re booking far in advance.
Citibank added Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles as a transfer partner last year. That means plenty of people have access to Turkish frequent flyer miles.
As a result it’s worth sharing that Turkish is running a 25% discount on domestic award tickets for booking and travel through the end of the year.
8,000 Marriott employees are on strike in 8 cities. That encompasses 23 hotels in Boston, Detroit, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Hawaii out of about 6500 Marriott properties worldwide and includes housekeeping, bartenders and others represented by union UNITE Here.
Marriott’s position has been that hotels are open and they’re ready to welcome guests. Guest reports suggest otherwise. And Marriott won’t waive cancellation rules or notify guests in advance about the ways in which stays will be disrupted.
Right now you can book British Airways first class from Johannesburg or Capetown, South Africa to Barcelona or Madrid, Spain for $880 roundtrip. That’s incredible. In fact it’s a base fare of just $111.20 in each direction plus taxes and fees. For international first class.
Right now there’s a fantastic business class deal from Los Angeles to Beijing or Shanghai on SkyTeam member China Southern (which is part-owned by American Airlines). You can book one-stop roundtrip for less than $1510 to either destination. That’s an incredible fare.
When fares are this low you don’t want to spend miles for an award ticket.
Last month Marriott launched their first promotion of the ‘new’ program. There was a companion game 29 Ways to Stay for each of Marriott Rewards’ 29 participating brands. It was supposed to launch October 4. It finally launched today.
And Marriott has added on to their MegaBonus promotion, bonus points for staying at their different brands.
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 »
