You wouldn’t buy the basic economy tickets airlines were selling, but they’re going to take your money anyway.
President Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Friday that not giving airlines another $25 billion, after providing $25 billion in payroll support and another $25 billion in subsidized loans, is akin to punishing them:
Chase has one of the most lucrative credit card offers we’ve seen for the premium Southwest Airlines business card. It’s a great card as I’ll show you in a moment but let’s first look at the initial bonus offer for the card, meant to make a really big splash and it does with up to 100,000 points as an initial bonus, which in 2020 is enough to earn a Companion Pass. When you earn the bonus you have enough points for a Companion Pass even under standard rules that return in 2021.
Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal, known for its cheap business class fares, has deals right now from the U.S. to Europe starting at just $82 one way and $229 round trip. And that’s not just East Coast to Europe, but even from San Francisco as well.
And while most people in the U.S. cannot travel to most destinations in Europe now, at least without quarantining on arrival (U.K.), this fare is available through next summer and at these prices it may be worth taking a flyer.
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.
British Airways has a new business class suite with privacy doors. It appears on the same plane where first class still lacks doors. That will be (slowly) changing as British Airways will have a new first class suite with doors, which will first appear on new Boeing 777s that start to be delivered next month.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle, along with the President, have publicly supported a second airline bailout in the form of a ‘clean extension of CARES Act payroll support.’ That would mean another $25 billion over 6 months to the airlines in exchange for holding off on employee furloughs.
However this hasn’t happened because it’s caught up in negotiations over a larger package, that some observers say is now unlikely to happen. Since furlough restrictions expire after September 30, some airlines are expected to let go of workers starting October 1. That’s seen as a deadline for Congress to act (or for the President to take some form of executive action, as he’s suggested he could).
October 1 isn’t really a hard deadline, though.
ABC Denver reported Jeffrey Cook reported on three missing cats loose on board a transatlantic flight for over an hour. We know what everyone was thinking, of course: at least it wasn’t snakes on that plane!
On Monday Delta announced that they were mortgaging the SkyMiles program, taking out a $6.5 billion loan secured by their frequent flyer program and its revenue stream As part of the deal they had to disclose a great deal of the inner workings of the program including where members are located and how much they’re spending on Delta American Express credit cards, along with how much they’re generating in revenue selling miles to members.
Just three days after announcing this deal they’ve announced an upsizing. Instead of borrowing $6.5 billion, they’re going to borrow $9 billion.
I like the British Airways Visa Signature® Card a lot more than I did before Chase updated the card with new benefits. This is the first card that ever had a six figure initial bonus offer in the U.S., it has a companion award ticket you can earn make it worth considering, but it’s the rebate up to $600 a year when you book award tickets that’s most enthralling.
The airline, which was already struggling before the pandemic, says that – despite a government bailout – they need more government cash or they won’t survive the winter.
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 »
