American Airlines Lays Out Brand New International Flight Strategy

by Gary Leff

Jul 01 2020

On Saturday I told you that a big international route announcement was coming from Americanincluding, quoting internal comments by CEO Doug Parker, “what we plan to fly next summer and what we don’t plan to fly.” That announcement is now out.

They’re revamping their international strategic focus, and bringing back many routes for summer while break-even load factors are so low thanks to the CARES Act. LAX is no longer their Pacific hub. They’re doubling down on close partnerships. And that means a lot of flight changes.

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U.S. CDC Takes On American Airlines: Government Health Agency Blows It Again

by Gary Leff

Jun 30 2020

CDC Director Robert Redfield has something to say about American Airlines. He thinks it’s horrible that American will sell middle seats on planes, which he explained in response to a question by Senator Bernie Sanders, In doing so he seems not to know that American Airlines hasn’t blocked middle seats throughout the pandemic, and other airlines like United haven’t done so either.

It’s troubling that six months into the coronavirus crisis the CDC is only just now studying whether or not distancing on planes matters.

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Delta Brings Back On Board Booze Starting Thursday

by Gary Leff

airplane seat
Jun 30 2020

U.S. airlines eliminating inflight alcohol is as much cost-cutting as it is a coronavirus protection measure. Serving a customer tomato juice isn’t safer than serving that tomato juice with vodka. Eliminating booze in domestic economy, where airlines were charging for it, is another measure – because that eliminates the need for a payment transaction, an interaction between flight attendant and passenger. Still, American Airlines dropped alcohol service in “Main Cabin Extra” extra legroom coach, where it was previously free. Delta eliminated it even in first class as well as their “Comfort+” extra legroom coach seating. When few people were traveling, and there was little competition in service, the bet was this didn’t matter. Of course dropping meals and booze from most flights meant little reason to ‘buy up’ to a bigger seat (especially when Delta,…

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Marriott Extends Cheapest-Ever Points Purchase Offer Through July 15

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Jun 30 2020

Marriott is offering points with the biggest bonus we’ve seen – you are effectively prepaying for stays at a discount.

A 60% bonus on purchased points, that began May 18, was set to end June 30. This has been extended to run through July 15. The best previous deal I’m aware of was a 50% bonus, though of course Marriott points aren’t worth as much as they used to be either. They’re willing to sell you points at a cost per point of $0.0078.

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Sting Operation: Hotels Not Following Enhanced (Or Any!) Cleaning Procedures

by Gary Leff

Jun 30 2020

TV reporters checked into a Hyatt, Hilton, and a Trump hotel in New York and left marks on pillows, television remotes, thermostats and other areas of the room with washable sprays and gels that show up under UV light to see whether cleaning procedures are being followed.

They checked back into the same rooms the next day to see whether sheets had been changed and high touch points had been cleaned. Two hotels utterly failed, and one hotel partly failed – enough so that you wouldn’t want to stay there.

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Amex Offering Cardholders $50 To Shop At Small Businesses

by Gary Leff

Jun 29 2020

American Express conjured up a holiday, Small Business Saturday, in a pique of marketing brilliance. They wanted to promote card acceptance with small merchants in a drive to reach parity with Visa and Mastercard, and promote awareness among their own cardmembers that Amex is accepted at small businesses.

American Express has a new small business promotion now – an ‘Amex Offer’ you can add to one personal card that will give you a $5 rebate on up to 10 purchases of $10 or more (total $50) at eligible small businesses.

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Marriott Closing San Antonio and Ontario Call Centers

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Jun 29 2020

Three months ago Marriott laid off Ambassador customer service staff as part of customer contact center closures, effectively gutting the personalized nature of the Ambassador program – which still requires customers to spend at least $20,000 annually, even with this year’s reduced elite requirements.

Now Marriott has gone a step further and just announced the closure of two call centers.

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