Modern airlines are really transportation system, and part financial trading firm. And sometimes they’re more of the latter than the former.
Indeed, here’s what Delta has been up to after losing over a billion dollars on fuel hedges in the first quarter of this year:
So this happened.
“At one point, the officer was like, ‘Who got peed on?'”
Seventeen years ago I used to credit Delta flights to United Mileage Plus. You could do that back then, although it was a pain because the miles almost never automatically posted. Partnerships change.
But it’s striking that even the most basic level of partnership — the interline agreement, that nearly all major airlines have with each other — is ending for American and Delta. And now we know why.
Alongside Amtrak’s new revenue-based loyalty program comes a new co-brand credit card partner.
We now know details on the two new products, and they’re interesting.
I recently cancelled my Citi / AAdvantage Mastercard in favor of keeping my Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red. There are several reasons to keep at least one, and many reasons why I chose the one I did. But Citi just narrowed the gap.
“Economy Plus… for the discerning passengers”
“Extra foot room… one inch at least!”
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
JetBlue and Singapore Airlines have introduced reciprocal mileage-earning. This relationship makes a lot of sense for both airlines, and it makes a lot of sense for passengers. There are good, strategic reasons to select one earning option or the other for your flying.
In fact this relationship makes flying JetBlue a lot more attractive for me, since the biggest drawback in my mind (besides having their “Mint” first class product on only a limited number of routes) was the TrueBlue frequent flyer program. Now they’re essentially ‘renting’ a quality frequent flyer marketing product.
Indispensable news source, latest issue includes: Your Global Entry membership now makes you eligible to sign up for expedited PreCheck-like security in Mexico. France, UK, and Greece are all privatizing airports while the US is not. Gordon Bethune thinks air marshals are a joke. And a Spanish billion euro airport was just sold for 10K…
United debuted their new narrowbody premium (first class) seat which week starts flying on a single Airbus A319 next week, continuing rolling out across the Airbus fleet in the fall (although the retrofit won’t be completed until 2017), and work will begin on ‘many’ 737s and 757s throughout 2016. It appears that while over 200 planes in United’s fleet will get the new seats not every narrowbody will have it. I assume that has to do with projected retirements from the fleet.
The seat appears to add half an inch of width compared to the current Airbus first class seat, at least that’s my read although United claims the cushion width represents a greater increase than that.
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 »
