With GOP Primaries Over and Fewer People Watching, Governor Suspends Georgia Jet Fuel Tax

delta badge
Jul 31 2018

Delta and United rescinded their group discount offer for NRA members. United is based in Chicago and everyone expects gun violence there. Delta took a lot of heat for their position and tried to walk it back claiming they weren’t really taking a position on the issue.

The state legislature dropped an attempt to repeat the jet fuel tax that would have been a big subsidy for Delta. This was signaling to GOP primary voters.

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An Airport Lounge United, American, Delta and Frontier Elites All Can Access

lounge
Jul 30 2018

Back in April I wrote about hidden lounges: airport clubs your membership gets you into but that your airline doesn’t tell you about.

The perfect example of this is The Club at Bluegrass in the Lexington, Kentucky airport can be accessed by any Admirals Club member, United Club member, or Delta Skyclub member.

It turns out there’s an airport lounge that grants access to pretty much everyone’s elites.

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Korean Air Eliminates Award Holds

first class cabin
Jul 30 2018

Korean Air has eliminated the ability to put award tickets on hold, with or without points in your account. This applies to awards for Korean Air travel (which could generally be held a month, and used to be able to be held nearly indefinitely) as well as to partner awards (which could be held ~ 5 days).

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Hilton Resurrecting ‘LXR Collection’ and Picking Up 1/3 Of Starwood’s Dubai Portfolio

dubai hotel by pool
Jul 30 2018

Earlier in the month it was reported that Marriott-Starwood would be losing the St. Regis, Westin and W hotels in Dubai all at once. The same owner of these hotels — Al Habtoor Group — also pulled the St Regis Habtoor Polo Resort and Spa out of the chain.

Dubai was one of Starwood’s most important markets, they had a legacy Emirates partnership similar to their Delta partnership in the US and a UAE co-brand credit card. Marriott’s loss, though, appears to be Hilton’s gain.

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Alaska Airlines is Making Too Much Award Space Available and It’s Hurting Their Business

alaska airlines plane
Jul 29 2018

In the Alaska Airlines second quarter earnings call on Thursday Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison noted that award redemptions spiked after combining Alaska and Virgin America into a single airline,. He reported total “redemptions grew by 22%” and saver redemptions were up 40%.

American AAdvantage members gobbled up the inventory.

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New TSA Program Assigns Americans Personal Air Marshals Who Report Back if They Board Last or Sleep

liam neeson on a plane
Jul 29 2018

The Federal Air Marshal Service is arguably the least competent law enforcement agency in the country. Naturally they are part of the TSA, which reportedly has a program to make sure air marshals don’t show up tot he airport drunk.

No air marshal has ever stopped a terrorist or hijacker since the service was founded in 1962. Although an air marshal did shoot and kill a US citizen in 2005. If something really bad did happen on a flight and an air marshal was onboard they lack the training to do anything about it.

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