In writing about New York’s $13 billion plan to renovate New York JFK airport I pointed out that the redesign wasn’t about serving the passenger, it’s about serving investors.
Airports aren’t being designed with passengers as the focus, they’re being designed with selling to passengers as the focus.
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.
Several years ago I wrote about the Radisson JFK being used as a homeless shelter.
I was torn over this. Customers don’t like staying in hotels where the largest in-house group are homeless, but I do think they have a right to stay on property if the going rate is being paid for their accommodations….
Nikolai Glushkov was preparing for legal proceedings over claims that he looted over $100 million from Aeroflot when he served as the airline’s Deputy Director for Finance in the mid-1990’s. He had run out of money and was preparing to represent himself — until he was “strangled to death with a dog leash.” The Russian government has impugned the circumstances around his death, while the British government is investigating murder and notes that “a black van [was] seen near his home the night he was strangled.” Had his trial proceeded he was prepared to testify that Aeroflot was the centerpiece of Russia’s clandestine services. The airline, Ms. Litvinenko said her husband told her, was a centerpiece of the Russian spy services, which since Soviet days had used its global network of offices and air routes…
Corporate travel policies are becoming more generous allowing employees to fly in premium cabins.
There’s a tight labor market and companies don’t want to lose their best employees. The spread between business and coach and winnowed down. With more competition for premium cabin seats there are fewer upgrades available.
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.
Security staff in India are being told to smile less. They’re worried about the perception of lax security, in other words security theater, although the agency’s director seems to believe that good security treats passengers poorly.
About five years ago I took advantage of a free 6 month trial subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I have no interest in a paper copy, but I do value access to articles behind their pay wall. And I still have that access. That’s because I suspend paper delivery of my subscription. You can do that for two months at a time. When they aren’t delivering the paper they aren’t decrementing the remaining days on your subscription you still have full access to website content. Many people are more interested in the miles offered for trial subscriptions, and take advantage of various shopping portal signup offers. Right now for instance Frequent Miler points to a $1 offer for a two month Journal trial that earns 1000 American AAdvantage miles. This offer should be around…
Government-owned Air India is a basket case. Part of the airline’s efforts to turn itself focus on cutting back on crew expenses and perks. Some of those efforts are reasonable, while others may be surprising.
American Airlines stock hit two year low. It’s down about a third this year. The market doesn’t seem to think their strategy is going to deliver results. Investors appear to be mirroring customer sentiment, judging from the comments and interactions I have with readers. It also appears to be mirroring employee sentiment, judging from what I hear from American’s front line.
The total value the market places on American Airlines right now is less than $16 billion. In contrast United’s market cap is $22 billion. Their stock has gone in the opposite direction from American’s this year. Southwest’s market cap is $34 billion and Delta’s is $35 billion.
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 »
