General

Category Archives for General.

Will California’s New Privacy Law Require American Airlines to Tell You Your Eagle Rating?

by Gary Leff

american airline plane
Nov 05 2019

Here’s how American Airlines scores its customers. American Airlines has a system called Helix that it uses to tell employees when to go ‘above and beyond’ for a customer. It’s used by reservations, agents at the airport, customer relations, baggage services and others as a way to know when it’s ok to spend more on a customer.

The goal of the system is to accommodate high value customers who are at risk of defecting to a competitor. Helix will display an Eagle ranking from 1-5 for each customer. This ranking is updated each day and depends on a combination of revenue and how badly you’ve been treated by the airline. You’re only going to get special treatment if your ranking is 3 or higher.

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How Much Hyatt Pays Hotels When You Redeem Points for Free Nights

by Gary Leff

Nov 05 2019

A hotel program books your room on points. They take the liability on their books for your point balance, and use it to pay the hotel.

Since hotels are mostly independently owned, they need to get real cash from the chain for your stay. Hotels actually benefit by filling unsold rooms with reward night guests, getting revenue from the loyalty program for a room that would have sat empty.

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British Airways Parent Company Acquires SkyTeam Member Air Europa

by Gary Leff

Nov 04 2019

IAG, parent of British Airways, also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and LEVEL. Now for the price of €1 billion they’re acquiring Air Europa (10 times current earnings). The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020.

They are currently the third largest Spanish airline, behind Iberia and Vueling already owned by IAG. This is a blow to transatlantic redemptions using Delta miles.

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Why Spinning Off Frequent Flyer Programs is a Bad Idea

by Gary Leff

cash
Nov 02 2019

On Wednesday morning I debated Stifel Managing Director Joseph DeNardi on whether or not to spin off frequent flyer programs at the Airline Information MEGA event in Florida.

Joe is the best-known face of the argument that loyalty programs are the primary drivers of revenue and value for airlines, and he’s argued that the overall businesses are undervalued because investors don’t clearly see how much good, high margin revenue is coming in from credit card partnerships versus from the airline as old-line industrial. He was charged with defending the idea of spinning programs off into a separate business, and I was charged with arguing against this.

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Qantas Selling Access to LAX First Class Lounge

by Gary Leff

Oct 31 2019

There was a time I would have argued that the Qantas first class lounge at LAX was the best lounge in the United States. That was before United opened its Polaris lounges, and American opened its Flagship First Class dining rooms.
While I prefer the ambiance of the Star Alliance business class lounge’s outdoor deck with fire pits at LAX, the sit down dining of the Qantas lounge makes it the most desirable place to spend time in the Tom Bradley international terminal prior to a flight.

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