Category Archives for Airlines.
SkyTeam’s Korean Air is acquiring Star Alliance member Asiana. Now the Prime Minister of Japan is talking about the need to merge ANA and Japan Airlines as part of injecting subsidies into his country’s two largest airlines.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says you’ll need proof of vaccination against Covid-19 to be able to fly his airline internationally, whether arriving or departing Australia.
His airline’s requirements may not be a bellwether for the world, but they do point to an expectation that travelers will need to be vaccinated in order to have access to the world. And this requirement is likely to last, when put in place by governments, for longer than is necessary.
Virgin Atlantic is running a fantastic business class sale from the UK at $1334 roundtrip on pretty much any route. Delta codeshares on Virgin may be even cheaper (from US$1083).
And incredibly Virgin Atlantic is running 50% off of award travel, too. That’s important because with taxes and fuel surcharges a roundtrip award ticket can still, at normal pricing, cost almost as much as a paid business class ticket under this sale.
Revenue-based frequent flyer programs have always been less generous. These programs were long popular with ultra low cost carriers, with low margins, where awarding customers little made sense.
When planes were full, rewarding customers less made some sense. Airlines didn’t need to spend as much marketing to fill empty seats when there weren’t many empty seats. The problem now is that revenue-based programs reward customers less in a low fare environment precisely when airlines need to invest more in marketing to fill empty seats, and it’s cheaper to offer award inventory than ever.
The head of world airline trade group IATA says so far governments have provided subsidies to carriers totaling $160 billion. But that’s not enough and they believe governments need to hand over more.
And what’s the terrible thing that will happen if they don’t? Something that is entirely and completely normal and happens all the time during normal times: some airlines may go out of business. That’s ok.
It’s been some time since there have been generous offers just to sign up for a frequent flyer program, essentially to start a permission marketing relationship. Maybe 16 years ago United Airlines was giving out 1000 miles to new members referred by an existing member, and rewarding the member that referred them to. But usually new member bonuses have required some kind of activity – proof of a customer’s value to the airline – before being triggered.
Once so many people have either had Covid-19 or been vaccinated against it that it’s equally likely that someone is vulnerable to it as not, restrictions on those who aren’t vulnerable to the virus (and therefore cannot spread it) are going to be harder to maintain. We’re going to see more people rebelling against mask requirements on planes in late March than we’ve seen so far.
Aegean Miles & Bonus is one of the most lucrative Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. Awards booked through them across Star Alliance partner airlines require fewer miles than in most other programs. So when they’re giving away 5000 redeemable miles just for signing up by December 1 those miles actually get you much closer to an award than you’d think.
American Airlines is offering the easiest Gold status I’ve ever seen from a public offer, and a path to Platinum with just two flights as well. Just sign up for Mastercard Travel. Details of the promotion are available under ‘latest offers’ but there’s no registration required. And you don’t even need to be a current elite frequent flyer with another airline.
At some point in 2021 “Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members will be eligible for free domestic upgrades on Alaska and MVP Gold 75K will be eligible for free domestic upgrades when traveling on American.” And “[w]hen the long-haul international flights launch” that are part of the partnership, Seattle – London and Bangalore then Alaska’s MVP Gold 75K members will be able to upgrade on American’s international flights. There will be access to extra legroom coach seats as well for top- and mid-tier elites.
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 »
