Category Archives for Airlines.
It’s much, much easier to earn status when you already have status with American. If you were flying to earn status and not engaging in any other activity, it would take $18,182 for an existing Executive Platinum member to re-earn Executive Platinum. In contrast, someone starting with no status and earning Executive Platinum on flying alone would need to spend $27,012 on tickets. But you don’t have to start fresh.
American Airlines has joint ventures with several airlines, including British Airways, Qantas, and Japan Airlines. In theory these are “metal neutral” – it isn’t supposed to matter to the airlines which one flies a given route. They split the money.
So how do they decide who flies? In a recent employee meeting, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, American’s Vice President for Network and Schedule Planning Brian Znotins explained how they coordinate schedules with their joint venture partners, including who flies where and when.
Alaska Airlines has eliminated miles expiration. Accounts used to go inactive (therefore expiring miles) after 24 months without earning or redeeming their points. Now accounts go inactive but can be reactivated with all of your points restored for free – as long as you do it within a year. I missed this last wrinkle when first looking at the change, and it means account expiration in 3 years of true inactivity.
When American Airlines introduces new business class suites with doors in 2024, alongside taking on new Boeing 787-9 aircraft, they’re going to reconfigure their Boeing 777-300ERs to have these seats as well. In the process they will eliminate ‘Flagship First Class’ and business will be the top cabin on the aircraft.
At an internal meeting this morning, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, senior executives at the airline laid out the two basic reasons they made the decision to drop Flagship First Class.
Saudi Arabia is starting a new mega-airline meant to counter Emirates and Qatar. They already have Saudia, based in Jeddah, and they aren’t expanding it. Instead they’re starting from scratch with a $30 billion warchest to launch “RIA” based in Riyadh. They’re hiring away the CEO of Etihad, and they’re about to place a major order for new planes.
In September American Airlines unveiled their new business class suites that would go into Boeing 787-9, Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A321XLR aircraft. These won’t be flying until 2024. But at the same time they bring an elevated business class seat into the market, the airline also plans to introduce new inflight meal service, amenity kits, and bedding as well.
I had heard this project was underway, but a little more detail was shared in an internal employee question and answer session earlier this month, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing.
At an internal employee meeting earlier in the month, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, Chief Commercial Offer Vasu Raja shared that Advantage enrollments in New York are outpacing nearly every other market in the system., and that more people are qualifying for status in New York than before “and 65% are doing it on the card.”
I absolutely love ConciergeKey. I’m hoping that since it was granted over the summer, expiring March 2023, that it will be renewed for one more year – that when granted it’s for a ‘minimum of 12 months’ – because I can’t imagine I’ll ever be able to qualify again. I’ll never be in the league of those spending $50,000 – $60,000 on high yield tickets, and without a twice in a lifetime type of promotion like last December’s deal was I’m unlikely to ever generate 5 million AAdvantage miles in a year again either. I never thought I’d have this status, and I’ll miss it once it’s gone.
Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s best carriers. They don’t just fly to Singapore – they also operate ‘fifth freedom’ routes between the U.S. and Europe. Right now their New York JFK – Frankfurt flight has up to 6 business class award seats available most dates over the next year, and most credit card points transfer to book these.
Southwest Airlines made four announcements about the Rapid Rewards program today. The best change is announcing something that’s been in effect for two years – priority boarding for Companion Pass companions. The worst change is more points required to earn a Companion Pass, but that won’t apply to the airline’s credit card holders. On net these are good updates to know, but not ones to be concerned about.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
