Category Archives for Airlines.
Southwest Airlines filed its 10-K with the SEC and as always it’s a treasure trove of information not just about the airline, but also about the Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program.
American Airlines has completed its $200 million investment in Gol for 22.2 million preferred shares (representing 5.2% ownership stake), and now American is announcing that “American’s AAdvantage® and GOL’s SMILES loyalty programs will [together] create the largest joint frequent flyer program in the Americas with enhanced benefits for customers.”
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have announced that they are merging. Combined they’ll offer 1000 daily flights and serve 145 destinations in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America and the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
This is effectively Frontier taking over Spirit for three reasons.
Concierge Key is the status that American Airlines gives to its top spending customers and top corporate travel influencers. It became legendary when George Clooney was portrayed as a Concierge Key member on a quest to earn 10 million miles in Up In The Air.
American usually sends chocolates each year to Concierge Key members. This year’s package is better. A reader generously shared photos.
The value of a currency is based on trust – how well it will hold value. So it makes me downgrade how much I value an Alaska mile. Although seeing the direction of award pricing with new partners I’ve begun to do that anyway, since they clearly appear to be on a downward trajectory (as I predicted would be the case as part of joining oneworld), and I tend to expect that as bilateral contracts for award redemption get renegotiated we’ll see more increases even for legacy partners
Nearly 40% of the American Airlines schedule was cancelled on Friday. Thirty percent of its schedule was cancelled on Saturday. And that shouldn’t come as any surprise. Texas experienced a severe ice storm, and American Airlines is headquartered at Dallas – Fort Worth airport.
The problem isn’t just that they couldn’t take off and land on ice Thursday, or through continued challenging conditions on Friday. It’s that the airline doesn’t recover well.
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.
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 »
