Category Archives for General.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Between July and November Virgin Australia is selling Los Angeles – Bali (via Brisbane or Sydney) for $568 roundtrip.
The fare is widely available, and should be bookable on most travel sites:
Earlier I wrote that Delta appeared to be having an unannounced award sale. Now they’ve announced it (HT: skdelta in the comments).
Of course the very idea of a ‘sale’ suggests that there are ‘regular prices’. We know that there are, Delta has inventory buckets and those buckets correspond to price charts. Despite Delta’s protestations to the contrary that prices are simply quoted at will, we know that all Delta has done is removed their award charts from public view in order to ensure members have less information. An uneducated consumer is SkyMiles’ best friend.
Alaska Airlines CEO sent an email to Virgin America employees about what they can expect as Alaska acquires Virgin America. I reproduce the full email below.
Brad Tilden shares that frontline employees likely won’t see cutbacks, and that there’s more opportunities with growth. He commits to share information as they know it. And that’s the best they can do, while recognizing the anxiety that employees feel.
Here’s the merger timeline that was shared with employees:
Delta is pricing business class awards to Europe over the summer for less than usual pricing. They haven’t announced a sale that I’m aware of.
Since Delta has run award sales before I’m assuming this is intentional, just announced. But without an announcement we also don’t know how long it will last. So book your summer SkyMiles Europe award travel now!
I just received the strangest offer from Starwood Preferred Guest. I’m offered double elite qualifying credit ‘between April 1 and June 30’. There are three strange things about it.
I guess this means I need to think about whether I want to be a Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum 75 member (24 hour check-in subject to availability, an extra Starpoint per dollar) or 100 night member (Ambassador status) for 2017. And despite the Marriott acquisition, SPG will remain a separate program in 2017.
Delta says their basic economy fares generated $20 million in incremental revenue during the first quarter.
On the one hand, it’s not that much in the context of $5.5 billion in domestic revenue for the quarter (so far these fares are only in domestic markets). If true, of course, since domestic revenue was up only 1.4% basic economy would account for the entire increase in year-over-year first quarter revenue. However, the figure is likely to be grossly exaggerated based on faulty assumptions.
Last week was United Airlines’ 90th birthday. Today is American Airlines’ 90th. Happy Birthday American Airlines.
American dates itself to 1926 and Robertson Aircraft Corporation, whose chief pilot was Charles Lindbergh. A number of small airlines such as Southern Air Transport, Southern Air Fast Express (‘SAFE”.. get it?), Universal Aviation and Colonial Air Transport were incorporated as American Airways in 1930, and then American Airlines in 1934.
In some ways, though I fly the airline most, I cannot figure them out.
Virgin Australia has New York – Sydney for $675 in August and September.
There’s a 10 day minimum stay (meaning you can return 10 days from the day you leave, not the day you arrive). Miles can be credited to Delta or Virgin America but will not earn full miles flown with either. You earn 20% redeemable miles with Virgin America but 50% redeemable miles (100% elite qualifying miles) with Delta.
About 8 years ago airlines started charging for checked bags that they used to transport as part of a ticket.
In addition to whatever incremental revenue they may earn from doing so, they discovered a huge incentive in tax arbitrage: the more money they move out of “the ticket” (which is subject to a 7.5% excise tax) and into “ancillary revenue” (which is not subject to this tax) the better off they are financially. Roughly speaking each of the largest US airlines is pocketing $50 million a year in tax savings by charging you for checked bags.
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 »
