Alaska Airlines acquired Hawaiian Airlines last week and promised that points transfers between the two programs would come the same month. And they’re here.
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Adams and his partner bought coach tickets to India, and Turkish upgraded them to business for free 48 hours prior to travel. He took a relative to Europe and Asia in business class for free on Turkish. And he also accepted free business class tickets to Nepal and Beijing. He was given a two-night stay in the Bentley Suite at the St. Regis Istanbul for less than $600 and a free two-night stay in their Cosmopolitan Suite.
But this is priceless…
CEO Bob Jordan, in his opening remarks, says that they’ve achieved compensation from Boeing for its delays – delays that, ultimately, have been good for Southwest in many ways – through credits on future deliveries. And he wants to “unlock” that economic value.
Southwest Airlines is revamping its product with extra legroom seats, less legroom in back of the aircraft, redeye flying and partnerships with other airlines.
These are the beginnings of mostly smart changes, but don’t go far enough or fast enough. In the end, though, they’re likely directionally correct given the constraints the airline fares. There’s no going back to historic profitability metrics and growth potential under the old model. That means their future is different; closer to a legacy airline. That’s largely inevitable both in terms of product and financial performance, and thus stock performance.
Several months ago Hilton became a Bilt Rewards transfer partner and you shouldn’t care (don’t ever transfer Bilt points to Hilton at 1:1), except that this means from time to time they’ll make really cool offers for Bilt’s monthly Rent Day. And that day has come.
Southwest Airlines is known for the games people play to secure the best seats, because the airline doesn’t assign seats – it’s first-board, first-served. They do assign your boarding order, but passengers save seats for each other, and there’s no rule against it.
The final print issue of United’s inflight magazine Hemispheres contains an easter egg on the cover.
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.
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 »
