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.
During European low cost carrier Ryanair’s investor call their CEO Michael O’Leary declared that “more airlines [will] suffer casualties” (go bust).
Here’s his argument. He’s been right and wrong on this topic before.
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Basic economy is an attempt by the major airlines to raise revenue by offering a worse product.
The notion here is that the cheapest fares get called basic economy, and you have to spend more to avoid those restrictions. It’s a price increase that applies to customers that are willing to pay more to avoid the least comfortable travel an airline offers.
Yesterday Hyatt confirmed that new premium suite award nights and upgrades become available November 1 at the same time they’re making changes to cash and points awards.
When yesterday’s announcement was made several questions were unanswered.
A journalist recently asked me how it’s possible for low cost carriers to make money intentionally selling $7.50 tickets?
The answer is three-fold.
American AAdvantage has an uncompetitive million miler program, recognizing lifetime loyalty, and they’ve made it worse over the past few years. There are two higher elite levels than there used to be, and lifetime elites are now at the bottom of the upgrade list. That’s easy to fix.
There will be more airline capacity flying out of Beijing this quarter than the traditional ‘world’s busiest airport’ Atlanta.
Five of the top 10 airports are in Asia, one is in Europe and one in the Mideast. Three are in the U.S.
Hyatt is running a promotion that gives bonus points for progressively more stays through November 30. They are also giving American Airlines points for Hyatt Place and Hyatt House stays through January 31.
And for Hyatt House properties specifically stays of four or more consecutive nights between November 1 and December 31 earn 2000 bonus points.
Last week I wrote that week that Hyatt was expected to make big changes to cash and points awards and introduce premium suite awards. Hyatt has now done so. There are more details to these changes — and more changes — than had been previously reported.
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 »
