News and notes from around the interweb:
- British Airways assigns passengers a score for how valuable they are, called a ‘Corporate Individual Score’, from 0-105.
It can have an impact on how you are treated on-board – whether you get your first choice of meal for example. It will also impact your upgrade and waitlist priority, if your flight or cabin is overbooked.
Scores have bands for each status level, for instance a Gold member ranges from 36 – 96 points.
- New Delta SkyMiles members who register by December 31, 2026 earn 5,000 miles for completing 3 activities within 90 days. (HT: Loyalty Lobby)
- Personally, the O’Hare improvement I’m looking forward to is the new L Admiral’s Club.
#ElevateT3 improvements are coming along nicely 👌
Learn more about the project: https://t.co/itRk50enms pic.twitter.com/kef0RSg4MD
— O'Hare Intl. Airport (@fly2ohare) July 31, 2026
- Houston flights to get the new United 787-9 elevated interior with Polaris Suites:
United
Houston (IAH) will be the next hub to get the new elevated 787, following the initial rollout in SFO.
IAH to London Heathrow (LHR)
IAH to São Paulo (GRU)
IAH to Tokyo Narita (NRT)
IAH to Sydney (SYD)The new 787s will begin flying from IAH at the end of October.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 31, 2026
- American Airlines 15,000 mile Loyalty Choice Award for two inflight food and beverage coupons are now available. There are some who will prefer this over a luggage tag or 1,000 Loyalty Points. Honestly, it could be a good option – even for an Executive Platinum member who gets a food item free on long enough flights. Maybe you want two cheese trays! (Especially if you’re traveling with family.)
I suspect I’d have made this choice if I hadn’t already claimed the 1,000 Loyalty Points for this year just to knock it out, so I wouldn’t forget to make a selection later.
- World’s first motel is up for sale in San Luis Obispo. See the historic property
- With Allegiant moving to offer free nonalcoholic beverages to all passengers (a big change, maybe bigger than their plans for a first class), reader Sam points out:
They might be the first airline to offer two options, both the free Mr. and Mrs. T and the paid Filthy Bloody Mary Mix. Meanwhile, merger partner Sun Country charges for Zing Zang, which sits between the two in quality. Lastly, Jetblue is still charging $2 for the half size cans of Mr. and Mrs. T
Sad that JetBlue falls behind Allegiant in passenger experience, to be honest.
- Hilton’s CMO on why brand marketing is an ‘irrational affinity business’ “Mark Weinstein explains how the hospitality titan is utilizing creators, AI and loyalty in an evolving advertising landscape.”
- How JetBlue is trying to stop flight attendants from continuing to accidentally blow out the emergency slides, per aviation watchdog JonNYC.
Also they are changing to the more standard departure procedure to now say "Inflight Crewmembers, arm your doors, cross check, and standby for all call"
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 29, 2026
JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater famously downed two beers, popped the slide, and peaced out from his cabin crew career.
The story about BA assigning a customer value score is not surprising.
If you’re old enough to remember the late ’90s, you’ll remember hearing “The customer is king” and “The customer is always right.” Most companies genuinely competed to earn your loyalty through better service.
Today, it is the opposite. Companies know almost everything about us, and instead of using that data to improve our experience, use it to calculate how much they can get away with. Who will accept weaker promotions, higher prices, slower refunds, or poorer service without leaving? Technology and AI have made businesses incredibly good at understanding customers and they use that knowledge to optimize customer tolerance rather than customer satisfaction.
The reality is that if you keep accepting weaker offers, the algorithm may conclude you don’t need better ones. And if enough customers accept the bare minimum, companies have little incentive to offer more to anyone. The baseline shifts downward, and “good enough” becomes the new standard. That is why you see this never ending stream of devaluations from all players in the loyalty universe.
“JetBlue falls behind Allegiant in passenger experience” Psh. Gary, all because of a bloody mary mix? No. JetBlue’s better legroom in Economy, IFE screens, free WiFi, and everything Mint still far exceeds even these promises of a First Class in Allegiant and a silly drink mix. Oh, were you being sarcastic? Sure hope so.
I end up spending a lot of time at the L Admirals’ Club and, unlike with the rest of ORD21, I know I’ll live to see that finished. Personally, if they have self-dispensing non-alcoholic beverages, I’ll be happy because I hate having to hit the bar for a Coke.
@O’Hare Is My Second Home — A Coke?! What are you, a fan of Atlanta-based Delta, now?
I am not a number, I am a free man!
@Thing 1 — What will ‘Thing 2’ have to say about this?
@BBT, You hit the nail on the head.
@Gary’s right… that @BBT is onto something. Bah!