My friend Samir sends along a link to Gas Buddy, a collaborative website for finding the best gasoline prices in the area. Since gasoline prices change frequently and may vary by as much as 20 percent within only a few blocks it is important to be able locate the service station with the lowest priced fuel. GasBuddy Organization web sites allow consumers to both share information about low priced fuel with others as well as target the lowest priced stations to save at the pumps!
About Gary Leff
USAirways Moves to Unlimited Space Available Upgrades
USAirways just announced that they are moving to ‘unlimited space available upgrades’ (and thus eliminating upgrade certificates) in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean beginning in March 2004. They join Continental, Northwest, Alaska, Delta, and America West in adopting this model — leaving United and American requiring upgrade certificates.This means greater simplicity for members. It also means less revenue from purchased upgrade certificates. And it also means more competition for upgrades. In a model where every upgrade requires a certificate, and a frequent flyer isn’t given enough certificates to upgrade every flight, they don’t attempt to upgrade every flight. So lower level elites are able to upgrade more often as a result of less competition. But with unlimited (certificate-free) upgrades, every elite “attempts” to upgrade every flight, and thus upgrading is more difficult.More…
American antes up bonuses for January through March
American is matching (registration required) United’s first quarter flight bonus of up to triple miles during most of the quarter.
As Christmas approaches
You can track Santa on the NORAD website.
Czech freedom!
US airlines may not stand up to the US government when it comes to demands for private passenger information, but Czech Airlines is standing strong. Czech law does not permit turning over passenger information as required by US law for flights entering the United States.Never thought I’d feel like the Czechs has a leg up on us Yankees…
Free stuff
IBM has a short survey for a free gift (e.g. umbrella, calculator/currency converter/calendar). Don’t worry, I didn’t know what all the questions meant, either.
KLM extends elite status
KLM announced that all Platinum members will retain their status in 2004, regardless of whether they flew a single flight in 2003. All Gold and Silver members will retain their status provided they flew at least once in 2003.Plus elite members with a Dutch bank account who get an American Express card will have their status extended through February 2006 whether they set foot on a plane or not.
More commentary on Delta’s elite level changes
Patrice Miles, one of the best names ever for an airline marketing exec, says of the changes just announced “I will tell you we’ll have a lot of pleased customers,” Ms. Miles said. Which just begs the question of why they didn’t make these changes 18 months ago…
Something to look forward to in the sky
We’re only six months away from the launch of Beer Airways!Another great airline has to be Excel Airways. Strangely they don’t serve Redmond, Washington.
Delta reverses course on medallion segment upgrades
Beginning January 1st, Delta will provide complimentary upgrades to elites. This is a major rollback of changes made to the Skymiles program, and is directly attributed to customer feedback. “We said early on that we would live with the program for 10 months and take customer feedback,” said Patrice Miles, Delta’s vice president of consumer marketing. “Well, we listened, and the number one thing we heard is that Medallion members wanted more upgrades and to simplify the process.” So I certainly have to tip my hat to the loudest voices, SaveSkyMiles.Delta is retaining their new qualifying system, making gaining elite status more dependent upon higher fares and more complex. However, once making that status, the reward may be a first class seat.Way to go Delta (and I haven’t said that for a long time)!Update: The…
