The Goldilocks Approach to the Best Credit Card Rewards

by Gary Leff

wallet
May 09 2020

I have a wallet chock full of cards. I have a card for each kind of spending. I want to earn 5 points per dollar on my airfare, 4 points at restaurants and supermarkets, 5 points at office supply stores, etc. I also have a huge stack of annual fees, that only make sense if I’m getting a lot of value out of each card and spending a lot of money in each category I’m maximizing.

For most people the 10 credit cards in my wallet is too many. And that doesn’t count the cards in my desk drawer.

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American Airlines CEO: We Don’t Match Low Fares, Will Charge People More Who Must Travel

by Gary Leff

american plane
May 09 2020

This past week American Airlines CEO Doug Parker hosted a Crew News question and answer session with employees. He’s been doing town hall-style employee chats since he was CEO at America West and this was the first one done virtually. Instead of live questions, he had an executive who framed ‘frequently asked questions’ from pilots, and separately from flight attendants.

In the flight attendant session Parker laid out American’s philosophy on pricing which is that they will match low fares in the market, but they will not lead discounting. And he explained they won’t even always match fares anyway – because the people who have been traveling recently are the ones who need to regardless of the fare.

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Some Thoughtful People Think We’ll Be Living Our Normal Travel Lives This Summer

by Gary Leff

May 08 2020

For better or worse – and opinions in the comments here are split – many well-known commentators are convinced that Americans will be mostly living their normal life by this summer.

That means traveling – and it perhaps even means socially-distanced Disney World in the manner of Shanghai Disney with limits of 20% of capacity and very frequent cleaning.

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American Airlines Introduces Earn and Burn Reciprocity With Brazil’s Gol

by Gary Leff

May 08 2020

Let’s mix metaphors for a second. After a game of airline partner musical chairs in South America, everyone is solidifying the relationship with their new dance partner.

Delta began mileage earning and redemption with LATAM a month ago and just signed their joint venture agreement. Now American Airlines has introduced frequent flyer reciprocity with new partner Gol, based in Brazil, which Delta used to own a stake in.

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Bizarre: American Airlines Spending Now To Add Seats To Planes, Only To Spend More To Re-Do Them

by Gary Leff

May 08 2020

American continues to spend money they do not have in order to squeeze more seats onto planes that they cannot sell. American is densifying aircraft to prepare for a future in which passengers demand the ability to buy more space for themselves.

That’s odd enough. Once they complete this retrofit, they go do it again to fix the flawed first class they continue to install.

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Yes – It May Finally Be Time To Plan Travel Again

by Gary Leff

May 08 2020

The Points Guy ran a video by Brian Kelly arguing “against any unnecessary travel at all.” I’m not persuaded, and hashing this out publicly should help people make up their own mind.

It can certainly make sense to do limited domestic travel this summer if you aren’t living in a coronavirus hotspot, aren’t heading towards one, and are not in a high risk group (and do not live or work with people that are). I’m not telling anyone that they should travel for leisure but the argument doesn’t hold that no one should.

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