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.
US Airways companion tickets get a reprieve – a few extra days to use yours. United’s new safety video. Boeing 747s for sale on the cheap. A hotel program eliminates expiring points and goes revenue-based. And more…
Delta makes its case that the government should give them gates at Dallas Love Field on its own terms, even though it refused to voluntarily pay United for those gates.
Cathay Pacific just announced a revamp of how their elite status is earned. And although it’s being reported in some circles as ‘revenue-based’ what they’ve done is adopt something like the British Airways system.. not the United/Delta model.
Thailand is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, so Thai Airways’ challenges can’t be pinned on the overall economy there or the military coup.
China is only number 14, and number 22 looking just at year-over-year data (not surprising given its slumping economy). Still, China is the second largest airline market in the world behind the United States although the US market remains more than 70% larger than the Chinese one.
The fastest growing aviation markets – based on the number of departing seats over the past 5 years are…
I’d pick Swiss over Lufthansa. I’d actually take American’s and Delta’s all aisle access fully flat Boeing 777s (and Delta’s 747) over Lufthansa business class! My general rule though is to always choose first class over business class.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
In light of the mistaken posting of lower earning rates in American AAdvantage on discount British Airways and Iberia fares, American’s Laura Nedbal makes one thing clear to me about changes like this: “[I]f we were to issue changes like this we would be certain to give plenty of advanced notice.”
All of the messaging from AAdvantage for the past year and a half has been that they’ve internalized the importance of giving members advance notice of changes.
A passenger onboard a flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam tried to open the plane’s door. He claims it was all a misunderstanding — he thought it was the bathroom.
He’s now banned from flying KLM and was taken away by police on arrival.
In August Delta split up blackout dates on Korean Air by region, improving one of the most frustrating things about booking award travel on partner airlines using Delta miles.
Now — effective October 1 — they’ve fixed that for another partner as well: China Southern. That’s especially useful because award availability on Guangzhou-based China Southern is fairly good across the Pacific and beyond to destinations in Asia and also Australia.
I received an email from Citibank asking me to update my financial information they have on file. My first thought was ruh roh this is like an American Express Financial Review.
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 »
