French air traffic controllers have won the right to show up for work three hours late and knock off work three hours early; a raise of more than $19,000; 18 more days off each year; and retirement pensions at age 59.
JetBlue is in a rough spot. They’re losing money. Their primary strategic plays – acquiring Spirit to have the planes and pilots to benefit from their American Airlines partnership – have been lost to Biden administration opposition. Now both Spirit and JetBlue fight for their lives, as the DOJ anti-trust suits may turn out to reduce competition in the industry (and of course help United but especially Delta in New York and Boston).
In March I wrote that JetBlue would cut some transatlantic flying and this announcement would come in April. It looks like the timing was off by about a week, but that they are pulling back on winter trips across the Pond. That’s a sinkhole for money and JetBlue can’t afford losses right now.
Fighting for San Juan, and offering premium service to winter long distance domestic destinations from New York makes good sense.
There’s a legit fare sale from Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal. They’re mostly promoting good coach deals (like Chicago to Copenhagen from $379 roundtrip), but it turns out there are even better business class offers. And the fare deals allow Lisbon stopovers at no extra charge.
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.
Bilt Rewards has added Hilton Honors as a transfer partner. Just like with their addition of Marriott as a transfer partner in the fall, it doesn’t add much to the program. It’s not that Hilton Honors points aren’t valuable, it’s that everything at Hilton is inflated by a factor of three or four – on both the earning and the redemption side – and that balances out fine except when transferring points 1:1. (Bilt requires a 2,000 point minimum transfer for base members, and 1,000 points for elites.) First transfers from Bilt to Hilton through June 8th receive 1,000 bonus Hilton points. That’s worth about $4, and doesn’t make up for 1:1 simply not being a worthwhile transfer ratio to Hilton. Crockfords, Las Vegas Bilt points now transfer to all of the major U.S.-based hotel…
Riots broke out at Omonia Square in Athens on Tuesday, as demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli-owned Brown Acropol Hotel, where the group believed that Israeli guests were inside. Participants chanted anti-Israel slogans and attempted to breach the premises looking for the Israelis.
I personally don’t see a problem with leaving it up to the customer to request a refund. That’s how every other product in the world works – if you want a refund, you ask for one. I’m not sure why we should be treating airline passengers differently, especially given the complexity, and writing this into law. But people get frustrated with airlines, and politicians don’t like siding with them in an election year.
Tourism boards are often highly questionable. They’re big pots of money where politicians appoint friendlies to cush, well-paying jobs where there are very few metrics of actual success and leaders attend conferences and treat themselves and others to a good time.
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.
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 »
