oint ventures seek anti-trust immunity to allow airlines to work together on schedules and pricing, and to split up the revenue they earn together on designated routes.
Proponents argue that they’re a second-best workaround to limits on foreign ownership of airlines. However joint ventures remove competitors from the field. Foreign ownership could increase competition, bringing more capital, while these joint ventures reduce competitors.
Delta and United rescinded their group discount offer for NRA members.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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Tamar Braxton is apparently a Delta Diamond and lifetime elite, so a very experienced flyer. Prior to departure of her flight from Cincinnati on Friday night she had an altercation with crew that was taped and shared on social media.
JetBlue has been in the news for making a jilted bridesmaid whole after she bailed on the wedding (for which she had already invested a lot).
Some customers have taken to social media with unreasonable – nae, impossible – requests which underscore some things just aren’t an airline’s fault
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.
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.
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 »
