News and notes from around the interweb:
- Tax reform’s full expensing of capital purchases could lead Alaska Airlines to make a big order for Boeing jets to replace the Virgin America Airbus fleet.
- The valet parking olympics
- House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-A4A) will not seek re-election.
- Matthew Klint may have gone a little crazy. With SWISS telling frequent flyers to ‘pound sand’ on their recent first class award redemptions, Matthew is paying for tickets with a plan to get his money refunded.
That seems ill-advised to me because the downside risk is he winds up out cash, and while he could ultimately prevail the best he gets is his cost of travel covered and he’s got miles that could just as easily be used for travel instead. In other words I don’t view the upside here as justifying the risk.
Credit: SWISS - The person who developed Chase’s Sapphire Reserve Card is now in charge of branch banking
- Alaska Airlines flight cancelled after rat jumps on plane in Oakland
- China’s HNA Group, Hilton’s largest investor, continues to borrow against its Hilton stake
Regarding Matt’s trip on Swiss, I wonder if he was even able to enjoy it. Despite the over-the-top comfort he had, I imagine he had to be stressed by the risk.
I think its unfair to say he went crazy. You’ve no idea how his finances look and what kind of impact this has on him personally. Also I strongly suspect that since he’s been taking with legal counsel his move was carefully calculated. It may not have been what you would do but at this point all of us should be applauding him for being willing to fight this fight. Because ultimately it will benefit us all.
@121pilot
No what he did would never benefit us at all.
We all KNEW this was a mistake that one could book LX F with Aeroplan miles even though there were those twisted arguments on the words.
As we have witnessed over the course of last couple years, DOT has stepped in to MODIFY the overly generous rules that had an intended consequences in punishing the airlines for mistaken fares being booked. Let’s face it, there is no fool proof of IT system, there are always chances for mistakes that could cause big financial impacts. Honoring published fares on a normal circumstances is the right thing to do, honoring mistake fares of any kind is insane and just encourage the greedy public to try anything to game the system. As a result, we LOST that over the top pro-consumer rules and now the protection if anything, is very minimal and would involve one to jump thru the hoops to claim the unrefundable expenses incurred.
My take is, given Matthew has made bold claim about suing Aeroplan should it not let him fly LX F, he has an issue – either he follows thru his bold claim or he concedes and admits he has made a misjudgement. Given his track records he is the one who want to make big splash and gain outsize attention. But this time he might have gone too far – just how much energy and time he needs to spend on this “fight” that Gary has correctly pointed out, with very little upside – at best he would just recoup his cost of the flight, at worst he has squandered a tidy sum that could be put to much better use.
BTW, he repeatedly said his fare was not the published fare people could see online. That might even further weaken his case to win.
The whole thing has turned into a circus show but it guarantees enough clicks to his site though. May be that is his ultimate goal? to fight for his position in a very crowded travel blogger field? So far it seems the reaction is more negative than positive of his “fight” and rightfully so as there is no justification to drag on, nor to make a bold claim to begin with. But now he has a “Losing Face issue” if he concedes retreat therefore admits he has made a foolish claim at the beginning.
I guess the rat really wanted out of Oakland. Insert joke here.
Matthew isn’t crazy. He’s just on his.
I feel sorry for the other passengers on that Swiss flight — a 14-month old in F?