Category Archives for Airlines.
ABC Denver reported Jeffrey Cook reported on three missing cats loose on board a transatlantic flight for over an hour. We know what everyone was thinking, of course: at least it wasn’t snakes on that plane!
On Monday Delta announced that they were mortgaging the SkyMiles program, taking out a $6.5 billion loan secured by their frequent flyer program and its revenue stream As part of the deal they had to disclose a great deal of the inner workings of the program including where members are located and how much they’re spending on Delta American Express credit cards, along with how much they’re generating in revenue selling miles to members.
Just three days after announcing this deal they’ve announced an upsizing. Instead of borrowing $6.5 billion, they’re going to borrow $9 billion.
The airline, which was already struggling before the pandemic, says that – despite a government bailout – they need more government cash or they won’t survive the winter.
There are a significant number of readers with Star Alliance Gold status and a lot of miles in the TAP Air Portugal Miles & Go program since they were selling miles for $0.0087 apiece as part of their mileage subscription program and matching status earlier this year.
TAP’s Miles & Go is running a mileage bonus (rather than a discount) on all Star Alliance partner flights. They will award “Club TAP” mileage subscription members with a 10,000 mile bonus for booking a one-way award on Star Alliance and other airline partners.
Thai Airways is currently in bankruptcy restructuring and suffering from the pandemic’s reduced demand and borders that are closed to tourism. The airline is looking for revenue anywhere it can find some. They’ve opened a restaurant so you can eat plane food on the ground. And they’re promoting deals for use of their flight simulators with an instructor, too.
According to Thai’s executive vice president of operations, Squadron Leader Soradech Namruangsri, the revenue-generating opportunity comes because the airline hasn’t resumed normal operations.
American Airlines will give out 250 bonus miles for every award segment flown in October, up to 2000 miles for eight segments. Registration required by October 7 in the promotions tab of your account.
Notably the bonus is available for flying the segment rather than booking the flight, so if you book award travel for someone else using your miles they can earn this bonus.
Two years ago United Airlines flyer Tom Stuker flew his 20 millionth mile. He’s kept up the pace because he just hit 22 million flown miles on United.
Tom Stuler has a Titanium Global Services card and a United plane named after him. Stuker has flown to Australia over 300 times and goes to Hawaii 3-4 times each year. In 2017 he had flown “over 9000 flights” on United.
During the campaign the challenger will traditionally put together a transition team to work on personnel and policy issues, preparing to hit the ground running if they become President. That doesn’t wait until the election. And that team goes looking for ideas and priorities for issue areas and departments.
One new report is likely a source of many of these ideas for Transportation.
Southwest Airlines is offering a 20% discount on Rapid Rewards points redemptions when you book by September 17 (Thursday) for travel through October 31, 2020 with promo code SAVE20NOW. This makes your Rapid Rewards points go farther, worth more.
So if you even think you might want to travel in the next six weeks, Southwest is a great choice and booking with points is better (for those not chasing status or a companion pass) than booking with cash.
At the beginning of the month a passenger handed a flight attendant ‘the worst note ever’. It was so bad – calling the crewmember “a glorified MAID” a “mask nazi” who should be “cleaning motel rooms for $2 tips and meth” and that her life is “a waste.” – that American Airlines suspended the customer’s flying privileges.
Now, if two data points are enough to make a trend, you’re going to be hearing a lot about another customer note given to flight attendant Ariel Ladner on board American Airlines from Tampa to Dallas Monday afternoon.
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 »
