Lots of folks seem to think that a US Airways acquisition of American is a done deal, going to happen, here’s one example of a guess that it’s even announced today. Allow me to offer a contrary view. I believe that US Airways wants to acquire American. They want it too badly that they’ll overpay to accomplish it. But the best scenario for US Airways is to attempt to acquire American and fail, because they’ll hobble American in the process. And the dance with US Airways benefits the unions, and American’s competitors, because it prevents American from achieving the cost savings they’re looking for. First, a US Airways acquisition will not come today. American currently has the exclusive right to reorganize through September 28. The Unsecured Creditors Committee can ask the bankruptcy court to terminate…
About Gary Leff
Getting the Best Value out of Southwest-Airtran Transfer Options
Now that Southwest and Airtran let you link accounts, Milevalue has a a rundown of when it makes sense to use your points to redeem through Southwest and when it makes sense to redeem through Airtran. Roughly speaking, cheap tickets redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points, expensive tickets redeem credits. 19,200 Rapid Rewards points are worth $324, so if you can find two oneways on either airline that cost more than that, you can profit from transferring. In today’s environment of sky high fares, finding a roundtrip or two oneways that cost more than that is pretty easy, especially since Airtran flies internationally to Mexico and the Caribbean. Let’s go through some examples to show how to determine whether you can exploit the transfer options. LAX-MDW-LAX for the dates I want costs $408, and I value…
American Adds Booking of British Airways and Hawaiian Airlines Partner Awards to Website
Via Milepoint, in addition to already adding online searches of Alaska Airlines award space, the American AAdvantage website has also added the ability to search British Airways and Hawaiian as well. Here’s a search of first class awards from Washington Dulles to London, one-way, which shows space on BA pretty much every day. DC isn’t a huge premium market, I see Air France as “O9” many days of the week (wide open business class awards, great for redeeming Delta miles). BA awards are pretty wide open as well. The key here of course is the taxes and fees, British Airways fuel surcharges are a killer, the website shows taxes and fees available for different itineraries as being between $2.50 and $700, the former being an American Airlines redemption and the latter being about what you’ll…
An Abject Lesson in Crisis PR: Spirit No Refunds Means No Refunds!
This story is so compelling you’d almost think it was made up. Jerry Meekins will die soon of esophageal cancer, and he can’t fly because of his compromised immune system. But Spirit Airlines considers his condition insufficiently grave to grant him a refund for a flight to Atlantic City next month. But if he actually dies before his flight, Spirit would be happy to give him some money back. …Meekins, 76, bought the ticket last month. His daughter is having surgery in May, and he wants to be there to take her home from the hospital and care for her while she recovers. He has been battling cancer for about two years. But it was not until shortly after he bought the ticket that doctors told him there was no more they can do. He…
Bits ‘n Pieces for Saturday, April 21
With british midland acquired by British Airways, here’s an airliners.net bmi photo retrospective. British Airways is offering a 25% bonus on transfers from hotel programs through June 20 (you must be logged into your account to see the details). I think the Amex Membership Rewards 50% bonus running through the end of May is a better way to get Avios points if you want/need them (and have Amex points!), I wouldn’t burn my hotel points this way unless I specifically needed to top off an account towards a specific award. Are travelers checks still useful? BBC travel says yes, for Africa. I’m not persuaded. Via Lufthansa Flyer, April 30 is the deadline to register for one route to count for double award or status miles in economy, triple in business, for travel between May 1…
Save the Date: Frequent Traveler University in Los Angeles, December 7-9
Follow the discussion on Milepoint.
Details Leaked of Starwood’s Summer Promotion
Starwood has been offering hints about their new promotion, but not details, and registration won’t open until May 1 so while others have covered the dribs and drabs I haven’t yet posted on it. The promotion is called “Nice Choice” and the idea is that it’s a choose-your-own-adventure, you pick the earning period you want and the rewards you want to shoot for. This premise is consistent with the way that Starwood seems to be thinking about its program — customizing the experience, interacting with members in the way they want, rewarding them with what they value most. Their new elite benefits let Gold members choose a check-in amenity of points, internet, or a cocktail. Platinums get an added choice of breakfast in addition to their previously existing amenity choices. 50 night Platinums get to…
Move Points Back and Forth Between Southwest and Airtran
When US Airways and America West merged, they offered the ability to move points back and forth between accounts before actually combining the programs. Delta and Northwest offered this as well in their merger, and it brings IT benefits to the airlines as well because consumers ‘link’ their accounts on a self-service basis which helps ensure that their most engaged customers don’t have any problems with that linkage later. Most recently United and Continental offered this in advance of their March 3, 2012 mashup, and yesterday it was announced that British Airways will offer this feature with bmi, so it’s certainly baked into the cake as an expectation now in any airline merger. Via NotiFlyer, this feature is now in place for Southwest and Airtran: A+ Rewards members can convert their credits into Rapid Rewards…
Singapore Airlines 50% Off Award Sale
Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is offering 50% off redemptions booked by May 2 for travel by June 16 on specific routes. Bear in mind that they normally offer 15% off for redemptions booked online, so this isn’t a full 50% off the normal price — just 50% off the list price. Bookings must be made online, and apply to specific Singapore and Silkair operated flights only, though interestingly the discount applies not just to saver awards but also to medium and high mileage awards as well. Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, and a Starwood Preferred Guest transfer partner, both a 1-to-1. Singapore offers one-way awards, and adds fuel surcharges like most non-U.S. programs. Business Class City Pairs Eligible Flights Singapore – Beijing SQ803, SQ810 Singapore – Brisbane SQ255, SQ256 Singapore…
The Boeing 787, from a Pilot’s Perspective
There are aviation enthusiasts and mileage enthusiasts, and those two aren’t always the same thing. I fall much more in the latter camp. I’m generally much more interested in the seat, service, and amenities than I am the aircraft that those items are housed in. But I also know and can even get a little excited by a new aircraft, the introduction of the Airbus A380 was a big deal and so is the Boeing 787. So I pass along the contents of an email that was forwarded to me by Gene, I can’t vouch for its authenticity but it seems reasonable enough to me as a non-specialist. This is something that will be mostly interesting to aviation enthusiasts rather than mileage enthusiasts, so for those of you, enjoy if you fall into that category!…
