Much rumored the past few weeks, now it’s official, Delta is acquiring a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic. Here are my initial thoughts. There were also rumors that Virgin would be joining an alliance soon. Since Singapore Airlines owned 49% of Virgin, Singapore is a member of Star Alliance, and Singapore has been tying itself up with Virgin Australia, most guesses were that Virgin would join Star Alliance. That’s clearly no longer in the cards, and any alliance talk is likely to shift to Skyteam. Many of the rumors the past week or so had Delta buying Singapore Airlines’ 49% stake in Virgin and Air France KLM buying a small portion of Richard Branson’s 51%, giving the two Skyteam airlines a controlling stake in Virgin Atlantic. That hasn’t happened yet, as now Branson’s interests still…
General
Category Archives for General.
American Teases Us With A Glimpse of Their New Livery
Well, almost a glimpse. Via Destination David on Milepoint, American has a new promotional video about getting ‘back on top’ that long on dramatic shots and platitudes, not a ton of news, but that’s still quite enjoyable 2m26s YouTube candy. And the best part is the frame at the very end, showing an aircraft in a factory covered with a tarp. They’re just taunting us. Underneath that tarp is their new paint job. Gone will be the silver, unpainted plane and in its place is… we don’t know what. But there’s a new American brand getting ready to launch. C’mon, American, show us what’s underneath that tarp! Update: American CEO Tom Horton gave an interview today where he noted that their new composite aircraft coming online “don’t lend themselves to being bare metal.” American also…
Strategic Value in the Alitalia Frequent Flyer Program
Head for Points asks if Alitalia has ‘the worst frequent flyer scheme’? Some programs have expiring miles (you have a certain number of years or months to use the points you accumulate). Examples here are Singapore Airlines Krisflyer which gives you 3 years to use miles you’ve earned, and Aeroplan which gives you seven years. Other programs have expiring accounts after 18, 24 or 36 months of inactivity. Any activity at all tends to be enough to extend the life of the account, resetting the clock on all of the miles you’ve earned. United and American are at 18 months, Alaska is at 24 months, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are at 36. My favorite whipping target, Delta Skymiles, does not expire its miles or make its accounts go inactive — although that policy was…
50% Off Hilton Stays During the Coming Lull in Business Travel
Hilton is running a ‘friends and family’ sale with up to 50% off stays between December 14 and January 7. They call it a friends and family rate but there’s no need to actually know or be related to a Hilton employee, it’s just a way of signaling that the rates are really good (which they happen to be in some cases). No form or other sort of verification requirements. Searches I’ve done pull up a cancellable rate, though the terms and conditions of the offer suggest that cancellation policies may vary. It looks as though it does seem to take 50% off best available rates in some cases, although at other hotels the discount is much less. This rates does earn points and stay credit. The rates aren’t available for New Years eve, and…
American-US Airways Merger Announcement VERY Close?
The Wall Street Journal had a decent piece today on US Airways’ latest offer for American Airlines. (HT: Pizza in Motion) It suggested deal terms under discussion much like those I wrote about 3 weeks ago, that US Airways was offering American’s creditors 70% of a combined airline while some of those creditors were using an 80% share as a negotiating position. The Journal says we’re not near a deal. The discussions among American, its creditors and US Airways are expected to continue into next year, and the dynamics of the negotiations haven’t changed much since mid-November, said people close to the process. But it seems as though American’s management now believes that a deal is going to happen, watching the way rhetoric has changed. When it became clear that there was real momentum behind…
Hilton Changes Elite Qualification Requirements, Declares Gold and Diamond Benefits (Almost) the Same!
Last weekend I wrote that changing the qualification requirements for Gold and Diamond elite status that’s earned in 2013 for the 2014 member year. Gold goes from 16 stays, 36 nights, or 60,000 base points to 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 base points. Each qualification method increases. Diamond goes from 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 base point to 30 stays, 60 nights, or 120,000 base points. Stays and base points increase, albeit less dramatically in percentage terms than they do for Gold, and the number of nights required doesn’t change. It’s fascinating to me that you can now just get a credit card and have Gold status as long as you keep that card (the Citi Hilton Reserve Visa), or put $40,000 in spend on a credit card and have Diamond (both the…
Hyatt Gold Passport Eliminating Passport Extras Awards
Jeff Zidell, Vice President for Hyatt’s Gold Passport program, announced on Milepoint that they’ll be discontinuing Platinum Extras awards. As we have said before, we will continue to invest in benefits that enhance the Hyatt experience for the majority of our members and eliminate benefits that are not valued or not utilized. Our Platinum Extras program falls into the latter category, and so, we have decided to discontinue it as of December 31, 2012. After a thorough evaluation, we concluded that Platinum Extras did not provide a significant enhancement to the Hyatt experience; in fact, more than 75% of the awards earned by Platinum members were never redeemed. Therefore, it simply makes sense for us to focus our time, attention and resources on improving the program in new and innovative ways rather than administering a…
Bits ‘n Pieces for December 7, 2012
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: A fascinating story from Ask the Pilot on what really happened in the Air France Concorde crash in 2000 — faulty repair to a landing gear, overweight aircraft, error in shutting down an engine, in addition to the piece of metal of the Continental jet. Buying MyVanilla debit cards with a credit card and taking the money out at a bank. The Hampton Inn Logan Airport leaks that the first quarter HHonors promotion will be double miles or points between January 7 and March 31. In a first-ever legal action to enforce a 2004 California privacy law, that state’s attorney general is suing Delta for failing to include a privacy policy in its mobile app. The airline faces penalties of up to $2500 for each of the millions…
Business Class is All About the Seat
You want a little bit of food that’s edible in business class, for sure, although for a short (US East Coast to nearer Europe such as London) overnight you just want to sleep as much as possible — eat in the lounge or at a restaurant beforehand and hope they’ll finish meal service quickly (to stop the clanging) and turn off the cabin lights. For service, I don’t need the flight attendants to be nice to me, I just need their help or at least willingness to keep me hydrated. My expectations for business class are mostly modest. But I want a good seat. Business class is all about the seat. Regular readers know that I love first class, the journey can be very much a part of the trip. The food is good, the…
Frequent Flyers Giving Back
The Milepoint Kiva lending team has together made over $4 million in microloans, the third most of any Kiva group. The couple hundred passengers on last month’s Star MegaDO raised over a hundred thousand dollars for charity. The raffle and other activities at last weekend’s Frequent Traveler University raised over $10,000 for charity. And Randy Petersen dressed up as Santa and — in partnership with KULA Causes — gave everyone in attendance a code good for donating $10 to any charity of their choice. In the past Hyatt’s Jeff Zidell has shared that the chain does much of its philanthropy through its hotels — the Hyatt Foundation gives to local charities recommended by its properties, helping their hotels to participate in their local communities. Which is great. But today @HyattPR shared a new initiative that…
