Yesterday I noted that American is ramping up its investment in onboard cookies. Implicit is an acceptance that soft product matters, even if the most important things are, in order: Safety Schedule Seat Premium cabins need some minimum standard meal, and minimum standard of attentive service. Onboard entertainment is believed to matter, which is why airlines continue to either install heavy expensive equipment or hand out tablets. Most frequent flyers I talk to say that it continues to matter, though I don’t understand it myself, I’d rather take control of my own entertainment and download shows in advance to my personal devices. I’d take onboard internet over entertainment, even when the internet won’t stream video, every day. On long flights, seat power matters. On my piece on cookies, I noted that United is bringing back…
About Gary Leff
Are Credit Card Companies About to Start Awarding Fewer Miles for Signups and Spend?
Skift reported yesterday on the renewal of the Delta-American Express co-brand arrangement that’s worth $2 billion a year to Delta. The renewal is for 6 years. The last renewal was in 2008. American Express has also renewed their Starwood relationship. While Skift suggests the renewal “amounts to a 15 percent improvement in terms for Delta” that’s actually 15% better in the first year of the deal, and a 20% imrpovement for Delta thereafter. Despite paying more, Amex Platinum and Centurion cards still receive hobbled access to Delta clubs and Black card members have seen a hobbling of their Delta status. The Skift piece argues that the Delta renewal will set a standard that could be followed by other co-brand deals.
The World’s Busiest Airport Isn’t Atlanta, Double Flight Points Through March, and an Air Marshall Wins at the Supreme Court
News and notes from around the interweb: Double Virgin America points through March 31. Registration required. Some commenters are reporting being told that Chase points transfers to Korean will return on January 25. I reached out again to Chase and got simply, “We anticipate the functionality returning soon.” Supreme Court rules air marshall didn’t violate federal law when leaking TSA plans. The new Vietnam Airlines blog, focused on that nation’s carrier and others in Southeast Asia, has new details on the Vietnam Airlines 787 including new lie flat business class seats and a seat map mockup. Now that Delta offers one-way awards I may wind up trying something like this.. Double American AAdvantage miles between the US/Canada and Asia on American and their joint venture partner JAL (though not on American’s China routes). There’s also…
How Starwood Got Hacked Over the Past Week
Several folks had their Starwood Preferred Guest accounts drained over the past week, many of whom have shared their stories with me. Krebs on Security has the story on how it happened. [A] Starwoods-specific account-checking tool that was released for free on Leakforums[dot]org, an English-language forum dedicated to helping (mostly low-skilled) misfits monetize compromised credentials from various online services, particularly e-retailers, cloud-based services and points or rewards accounts. What it did was simply let folks check to see if data that had been stolen in other hacks could be used to access Starwood accounts. Since people use their email address as a user ID, and the same passwords across many sites, simply taking a database of stolen usernames and passwords will generate a good hit ratio across other sites. Not everyone on one site is…
American Is Replacing Their Unpopular First Class Chocolate Chip Cookie. Here’s Why That Matters.
I read a rumor in my Facebook feed that American was changing its onboard cookies again, and I reached out to see if that was true. A spokesperson told me, “Rumor confirmed. We’re changing cookies.” That’s exciting news, believe it or not, for an American Airlines frequent flyer — both because the cookie they introduced in September wasn’t very good.. but more importantly because of what it shows about how they’re making decisions as they proceed with the merger. In talking with them about the cookie, I learned that: The September-onward cookie “was made with higher quality chocolate and was quite frankly more expensive than what we had been serving on American.” They heard customer feedback that it wasn’t as enjoyable as the old cookie. So they’ve taste-tested a new cookie that’s “going back to…
Eight Ways to Save Money on Airfare… and How Not To Save Money on Airfare
Reader David B. pointed me to Scott McCartney’s column in the Wall Street Journal on what to do — and what not to do — to try to save money on airfare. Here are 8 important ways to save money:
An Airline Completely Eliminates Fuel Surcharges to the US! Plus 50,000 American Miles and More…
News and notes from around the interweb: 2500 bonus American miles every 2nd Marriott stay, up to 50,000 miles for stays between February 1 and April 30. Registration required. The offer details say it’s targeted, but everyone I checked with has received it (and you’ll know if the offer shows up in your account once you register). Immediately after getting some heat, Virgin Australia has decided to eliminate fuel surcharges on its U.S. flights (though it will raise paid fares most of the way back to compensate). Delta stopped adding fuel surcharges to Virgin Australia two years ago. They’re a Starwood Preferred Guest transfer partner as well, though you have to use an eligible address to join the program. New York JFK’s $50 million ‘terminal for animals’ known as ‘The Ark at JFK’. Air India…
Double Points on Rocketmiles Hotel Bookings, Today Only Up to 10,000 Miles Per Night!
Rocketmiles: 24 hour double miles offer Rocketmiles is a hotel booking website that rewards you with miles for your reservations. I don’t make great use of it for my own travels, since I generally book directly through a hotel chain since I want their points and elite stay credit. If I wasn’t chasing status, I’d find this site very lucrative. And it’s great if you book rooms for other people – they stay in the room, you get the points. Their CEO Jay Hoffman emails to let me know, Since we now have twice the number of partners we had a year ago, we’re offering 2x miles to new customers for 24 hours This offer is for first-time customers only, but double miles applies for any mileage partner, any length of stay, and any hotel…
Delta Eliminates Extra Award Availability for Elites and Credit Card Holders
The Delta Points blog wrote that Delta had eliminated the ‘extra award availability’ offered to its elite members and premium co-brand credit card holders. Enhanced Availability for Award tickets has been discontinued for SkyMiles Medallion members and Platinum and Reserve Delta SkyMiles Credit Cardholders. The enhanced availability classes will continue to be displayed, but will always have the same availability as N class of service. This was from an unattributed source, so I reached out to Delta who confirmed the information. According to their spokesman, With the launch of the 2015 program and the improvements to redemption including more redemption options, we now offer the same Award availability to all SkyMiles members. Award availability for all members in 2015 is improved over the enhanced availability Medallion members and co-brand card holders had access to in…
Have Too Common a Name? Get Forced to Sit in Coach. Drink Too Much. Use That As Excuse for Mauling Flight Attendant.
Korean Air faces a fine for giving a passenger the wrong ticket for travel Seoul and San Francisco. The mix up was caused by two passengers with a similar name. Their last names were both ‘Kim’. The passenger who triggered the Transport Ministry investigation is a singer who purchased a business class ticket named Bobby Kim (we don’t know the first name of the other passenger). He was so distraught over being given someone else’s economy ticket that he had six glasses of wine during the coach flight. High jinks ensued: The popular R&B singer, who is a citizen of the U.S., was probed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation when he arrived at San Francisco International Airport for allegedly sexually harassing a female flight attendant while intoxicated on the U.S.-bound flight. According to…
