Most American Express Customers Redeem Points The Worst Way — And That Pays For The Best Travel Redemptions [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

• People primarily redeem Amex Membership Rewards points for gift cards, statement credits, and ‘pay with points’ shopping – not transferring points or even booking travel. (1) The idea of travel matters more than actually using points for travel, (2) Amex has a lot of low cost transfer partners, but that’s not what keeps the economics of transfers working for them – it’s all those even cheeaper redemptions. Their blended average redemption cost is just super-low… which means that Amex basically redistributes value from clueless consumers to savvy ones.

  

• Delta will open a new Las Vegas Sky Club and replace their current Tampa and Jacksonville clubs I’m surprised it took Delta this long to share the news none of this was secret, I wrote that Tampa was happening a year ago.

• Straight to jail.

  @sabtravel Isn’t this even ILL€GAL to do?? #solotravel #travelgirl #travelhumor ♬ original sound – SAINTED

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• It’s always Marriott.

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• A new law review article arguing that the Department of Transportation lacks the legal authority to impose the kinds of frequent flyer program rules they were considering late in the Biden administration.

• There’s been a lot of talk about GLP-1 drugs bringing down airline (fuel) costs. I suspect it will bring down fares, also, in some markets – largely airport that aren’t slot or gate-constrained, because there competition can drive down prices towards that lower cost. Of course use of the drugs need to be widespread to bring down average passenger weight before any of this plays out.