The “heart” of Southwest Airlines died today, with the company’s first layoffs in corporate history.
They did these via videochat, not in person, banning everyone from headquarters. And the messaging isn’t “we’re in an existential fight for our lives” it’s “we’re not optimizing financial performance.”
This is a pretty good offer for Southwest and for customers. They’ll give you a free companion to travel with you for about two months if you book just two one way flights right away (and use them for travel in the next six weeks).
Bilt Rewards Vice President Richard Kerr wrote up an in-depth explanation of travel portals. Bilt uses Expedia for members who want to redeem their points at 1.25 cents apiece towards paid travel, whether it’s hotel or airfare or other bookings.
American Express, Chase, Citi, and others have travel portals and it’s common to use a third-party ‘white label’ service like this.
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An American Airlines passenger removed their shoes and propped both of their sock-clad feet inside the seatback pocket assembly, using it as a makeshift footrest. Perhaps it was already broken, but they’re clearly stretching it out further. And that storage compartment is designed for small items like magazines or safety cards – not feet.
Capital One has added JetBlue TrueBlue as a miles transfer partner. JetBlue had been a partner up until October 24, 2021.
A passenger is speaking out about their experience on Monday’s Delta Air Lines flight 4819 disaster. They were on board the Minneapolis to Toronto flight that crashed at the airport. The regional jet, operated by the airline’s wholly-owned regional carrier Endeavor, wound up upside down, with its wings sheared off. Everyone made it off the aircraft, though some of the passengers were injured including critically.
A flight attendant helps push passengers through the plane’s emergency exit, while people outside assist passengers getting off the aircraft. The flight attendant instructs passengers not to take anything with them, since that would impede the quick exit from the aircraft: “drop it!”
I wrote on Sunday that there were murmurs of layoffs in the offing at Southwest Airlines, and the carrier has now made that announcement to employees.
Delta Airlines flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto appears to have been involved in a crash on landing. The plane is upside down. It appears that the wings have broken off the aircraft.
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 »
