Category Archives for Airlines.
A reader shares how changes to the AAdvantage program’s elite status-earning drove his behavior in making a major purchase – Super Bowl tickets – and this story perfectly underscores how ‘Loyalty Points’ are changing the game in loyalty marketing and American’s position relative to competitors.
Imagine spending 190,000 miles roundtrip just to fly Alaska Airlines!
The cost of first class awards on Alaska Airlines flights may in some cases be 37% higher on March 1 than they are today and throughout the month of February. So if you redeem Alaska Airlines miles for Alaska Airlines travel in first class, potentially paying more than the lowest published mileage price for the flexibility of choosing your day of travel and preferred flight, you’ll want to do so now. Here’s what concerns me most, though —
Delta CEO Ed Bastian has approached the U.S. Attorney General seeking to put unruly passengers on a terrorist list that would deny future travel across all airlines. This is mostly for show, but anyone concerned with civil liberties should e-mail Ed Bastian.
There’s a chance that restrictions get lifted but the Omicron wave turns out not to be the last gasp of the virus. That would make it thinkable that restrictions could make sense again. But the political calculus is that looks like the administration ‘made a mistake.’ And this administration’s fear of appearing to make an error is balancing out its need to declare victory. And that could delay lifting the transportation mask mandate.
Southwest Airlines just pushed back the return of alcohol on board to “late in the first quarter maybe early in the second quarter” a week ago blaming virus spread. And now they’ve reversed course. Booze will be back on board February 16th.
Good news Southwest is honoring free drink chits with 2020 and 2021 expiration dates. Here’s how you can still get free drinks on Southwest.
Alex Cruz was passed over to lead airline group IAG in fall 2020 and stepped down as CEO of British Airways. The former head of low cost carrier Vueling is largely credited with cost-cutting at the British flag carrier that led to a deterioration of employee morale, customer satisfaction, and a series of IT meltdowns.
Last week British Airways CEO Sean Doyle pledged to restore the airline’s reputation for premium service. Now, in a leaked memo to staff, we have a window into changes that BA is making. And so far they seem to amount to fairly weak sauce.
United’s financial advisors “have begun contacting potential investors including private equity firms” about a sale of less than 15% of the MileagePlus program. The buyer may be a strategic partner “to help better monetize data from the business.” A sale could bring over $3 billion in cash.
Delta is testing free checked bags. They are “sending texts to passengers departing from its Boston (BOS) hub the day of their flight, urging them to check their carry-on bag … for free.”
The month-long test began this week.
For years the issue would arise largely when an offer was published with a mistake that consumers took advantage of. Now there are more offers that will just be more expensive than retailers have budgeted for. And consumers may have more of an interest in spotting these opportunities both because stacking makes them more attractive, and because American’s Loyalty Points scheme makes doing so more rewarding.
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 »
