Traditionally ‘premium’ domestic markets have been limited to New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco because they’re premium revenue markets and East Coast – Hawaii because though it’s primarily leisure it’s a longer flight than Europe. That means at a minimum lie flat seats up front.
There’s increasing competition offering a premium product on other routes from United, Delta, and JetBlue.
Regular readers know that I’m thrilled by the support travel companies have given to same sex marriage. Travel providers do tend to be more socially liberally than the countries in which they’re based. That’s true all over the world, they bring people into contact with other cultures and bring foreign experiences home.
But now, in the aftermath of Delta’s PR debacle ending a discount arrangement with the NRA, Delta says they may stop offering discounts to “any group of a politically divisive nature.” Will that end Delta’s support for LGBT groups?
On Friday United sent out a memo that they’re eliminating quarterly performance bonuses of up to $300 and replacing those with a lottery which fewer than 2% of United’s employees will receive anything from.
Employees are not happy about this change. A flight attendant created a change.org petition detailing grievances, but was forced to close it.
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Italian carrier Meridiana has been in the news for its rebranding as Air Italy. The Qatar Airways-backed carrier is taking on bankrupt Alitalia to become Italy’s national airline. It’s upgrading its fleet and services and has a massive growth plan.
And right now there’s a $600 roundtrip business class fare between Cairo and New York JFK.
It was supposedly a card that finally figured out how to attract millennials when the truth is it was just a card that offered more total value than most that had ever come before and whose initial marketing was primarily online so new applicants skewed younger.
The value was so rich that word on the street was Chase didn’t even ever expect to make money on a new cardholder until they held the product for 6 or 7 years.
One of the great benefits of many premium travel rewards cards is trip delay coverage. If your flight is delayed — the length of delay required varies — you can send the bill to your credit card company’s insurance provider for things like transportation to and from a hotel, your room night, and meals.
Hyatt explicitly lets members gift their elite status to friends when they book awards in someone else’s name.
But booking a paid reservation for someone else using your own account is verboten. Frequently some members will book a stay in their own name and add a friend as a second guest on the reservation.
United Airlines sent a memo to employees yesterday telling them they would no longer receive their quarterly bonuses of up to $300.
Instead when United hits at least one of four performance metrics they all get entered in a lottery.
As governors around the country flirt with the idea of luring Delta’s headquarters out of Georgia now that lawmakers there are refusing to give them fuel tax subsidies they’ve lobbied for — and some are even offering to back the truck up as it were (Connecticut’s governor says they “are committed to doing whatever necessary to help make this relocation a reality.”) — consider that Delta doesn’t just devalue SkyMiles they renege on deals with governors, too.
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 »
