News and notes from around the interweb:
- I’m a big fan of loyalty programs extending status when life intervenes and travel drops. There’s no reason for a business to lose an elite member who will still be a lucrative customer in the future, they don’t want that member to become a free agent without status. And the member values putting the elite treadmill on pause. Family leave policies make sense for frequent flyer programs.
So I applaud the ability for Hilton status to be extended one time although I think the benefit should be more generous (people sometimes have a second child). And I think British Airways allowing members to put status ‘on pause’ makes sense but should be more generous too.
- El Al will launch Miami – Tel Aviv service in November. When American Airlines dropped their partnership with El Al a couple of years ago, I expected them to expand their Tel Aviv flying and thought Miami was a logical route. (Instead of course they ceased serving Tel Aviv.)
EL AL’s arrival at MIA will make the South Florida airport its first market in Florida and fifth nationwide with nonstop service to Israel, officials said.
The new service from Miami to Tel Aviv will operate three times a week with Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which carry 279 passengers.
- The Eagles are suing a hotel that was called the Hotel California even before they wrote their song, it changed its name back to Hotel California and profits from merchandising.
- British Airways has learned there are some limits to the poor treatment they should hoist on elites. Their version of Basic Economy fares are ‘Hand Baggage Only’ fares. Unlike joint venture partner American Airlines (and United) they’re going to allow advance seat assignments for elites traveling on these fares.
- Malaysia analysis of MH370 debris supports mid-air breakup
- ExpertFlyer surveyed travelers on how the electronics ban would affect their travel decisions. Then they interviewed me to talk about the results.
Airlines need to back away completely from Basic Economy.
BA: I’ll call your “hoist” and raise you a “foist”.
The electronics ban article makes it clear that the tactic of fighting the ME3 with fake “security” rules is working, at least in part, for the Trump/Legacy US3 alliance.
EL Al, Never flown but I heard from my wife that EL AL seating for economy is tighter than the Delta by far. But EL AL doing a direct to Miami is as said a good choice, I would for EL AL to eventually do a direct from somewhere in the mid-west like Chicago, Indy or there about’s, currently the only directs I know of from the U.S. are out of NY area.
Note, BA Short-haul Economy, which now charges for all beverages, credit card only (even for Elite) has a limited onboard payment system that only accepts UK credit cards. I only have US cc-s and wasn’t able to buy water or coffee onboard on April flight. They didn’t have a free glass of water as an alternative.
Come on British Airways Customer Service, your new Economy drink purchase policy prohibits International passengers from buying onboard. How is that fair? (FRA>LHR for example). @britishairways