American’s financials show they only make money on their frequent flyer program, and are not making money flying passengers.
American has earned pretax income of $1.5 billion year-to-date, while $1.8 billion was booked as immediate marketing revenue from sale of miles which comes at almost no cost
Five years ago most Wyndham properties could be booked for a maximum of 16,000 points. They jacked up award prices to as much as 40,000 points (after pricing some properties as high as 45,000 and 50,000 points).
And then they introduced a new flat redemption rate of 15,000 points per night in 2015. This was hailed as a big decrease in pricing for their best properties, when really is was reverting to what pricing had been just two years earlier — and a big increase in prices for lower-end hotels.
A United employee was fired two years ago but kept his uniform and airline ID. He spent over a year logging into United terminals inside airports around the country and printing meal vouchers. A lot of them.
He created tens of thousands of meal vouchers, intended for distressed passengers, worth $20 – $30 each.
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.
Twelve years ago the most you could spend to stay at a Hyatt was 15,000 points. There was nothing higher than category 4. Yesterday the category drop down on Hyatt’s website began displaying a greyed-out category 8, 40,000 points per night.
I don’t know about you but on a flight less than four hours I may not use the lavatory, especially if I’m in a window seat. I’ll just make a stop in the restroom on the way out of the terminal.
That doesn’t always work if you’re flying into New York JFK, though. This morning in terminal 5 a water main break caused the airports to lose pressure and close down the bathrooms.
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.
Yesterday’s 7:05 p.m. American Airlines flight AA257 from Miami to Mexico City was delayed multiple times and then cancelled due to a security threat that was ultimately deemed ‘non-credible’.
When customers were back in the terminal they were guarded by armed officers. Police searched passengers’ phones and swabbed them for explosives residue.
American’s stock hit new lows yesterday in advance of today’s earnings call. That left the airline in a tough position, needing to explain how they’d cut costs which are rising at a faster rate than revenues.
I listen to the earnings call with a different perspective than most people covering them. I’m interested in news about the loyalty program, about the product, and about how changes to the business are likely to impact the way customers interact with the airline — as well as what we can expect from the overall direction in the industry.
As a result some of the six things that stuck out for me are likely to be different than key takeaways elsewhere, and are things you may otherwise miss.
This week we learned that American Airlines is gutting the ability to earn elite qualifying dollars from credit card spend for next year.
Barclays representatives are saying that they are unable to upgrade customers from Red to Silver at this time and that this is a requirement of American Airlines because of a loophole created by this change.
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 »
