General

Dec 14 2017

When Delta re-upped its co-brand card agreement it set a bar that other airlines have tried to chase with their own bank issuer arrangements. American Express was willing to back the truck up to Virginia Avenue since it was set to lose its Costco cobrand and desperately needed to lock in its next-largest co-brand deal. (Shortly thereafter they re-upped their next largest, Starwood, as well.)

Revenue from American Express has continued to grow as spend on their products has grown. As Delta shared this week at is Investor Day 2017 revenue from American Express will total $3 billion. And they’re projecting out continued straight-line growth.

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Dec 14 2017

American lost its India reach when Delta outfoxed American and blocked its Jet Airways relationship. Now Delta is outmaneuvering American again with a WestJet joint venture and now American is losing its reach into Canada too.

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Dec 13 2017

A homeless man stumbled onto 300,000 Euros worth $354,786 at current exchange rates in the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport last Friday.

He ‘leaned on a door’ in terminal 2F which generally serves Air France’s partners like KLM and Alitalia. It was left unlocked and it opened.

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Dec 13 2017

To celebrate the launch of United’s new Houston – Sydney service they’re looking for 5 people with the first or last name Sydney to shower with gifts and prizes. Do you know someone named Sydney (or Sidney or Cydni or…)?

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Dec 13 2017

Over the summer Boeing pulled off some spectacular art with a 787 — drawing a 787 in the sky with the route that it flew.

And other pilots have gotten even more creative.

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Dec 13 2017

My wife and I booked first class awards in Singapore’s Suites from Sydney to Paris, with a stopover for a couple of days in Singapore. And we were fortunate to experience the ultimate in luxury — a Singapore airlines Suites cabin to ourselves with separate seats for eating and entertainment and separate suites for our double bed — plus a Singapore crew to ourselves!

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Dec 13 2017

The exclusive experience is unquestionably nice. Flagship First Dining gives American one of the best lounge experiences in the U.S. You have to compare it to the Qantas first class lounge in LAX, for instance.

A leisurely and serene sit down meal in this lounge is the perfect way to start a long flight, skip the first meal service and go right to sleep especially for the 11 p.m. departures.

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Dec 13 2017

French Polynesia is one of the toughest frequent flyer awards to book. That may be about to change, or at least we may expect a big drop in price.

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Dec 13 2017

Cathay Pacific is expected to announce new service from Hong Kong to Washington Dulles next week operated by an Airbus A350.

This clocks in at around the 12th longest flight in the world, as well as Cathay Pacific’s longest, the longest from Hong Kong, and the longest from Washington Dulles.

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Dec 13 2017

George and Amal Clooney have six month old twins. They were flying to the U.K. with the kids (their kids were born in London in June, and Amal is from the UK).

And they pro-actively “passed out noise-canceling headphones” to other first class passengers along with a note “apologizing ahead of time” on the chance that the twins cried.

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