Just as they said to expect in January Alaska Airlines announced on their earnings call this morning that they will introduce Basic Economy fares in late fall.
In the new Marriott loyalty program they’ve largely taken the better Starwood elite program and the better Marriott earn and burn proposition — however Starwood members won’t see exactly what they’ve come to expect on the Marriott side and and Marriott members have seemed likely to experience some devaluation of points.
Marriott’s CEO says they’re making the program less expensive for hotels. That’s created a pretty strong starting point to assume that earning and redeeming points couldn’t offer quite as good a value as before.
American Airlines and Citibank announced that their co-brand credit card will be increasing earning and also that a bigger signup bonus is coming next month.
While American Airlines flight AA2446 from Miami to Chicago O’Hare was still at the gate last night the instigator of a ‘disagreement’ between two passengers was asked to get off the plane. He refused. And in a post-David Dao world airlines now deplane everyone when that happens, rather than starting off dragging the passenger down the aisle.
Now, disagreement is a great euphamism here.
A 12 year old boy got into a fight with his mother. He didn’t just storm off into his room, or run away to a friend’s house. He “borrowed the family credit cards, tricked his nan into giving him his passport and booked himself a flight to Denpasar, Bali.”
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Crystal Tadlock was given an apple as a snack on her Delta flight from Paris prior to arrival. She stuck it in her carry on bag figuring she’d eat it on her connecting flight to Denver.
Going through customs she was selected for secondary screening.
Earlier I noted that an EU court ruled that airlines will have to pay compensation to passengers when they cancel flights as a result of labor actions. When unions organize a sick out, and there aren’t enough crew to staff a plane, airlines don’t just lose revenue from the flight they will have to issue checks to each inconvenienced passenger.
To a consumer that sounds great, right? The Court of Justice of the European Union handed unions a new gun to aim at airlines, and may make unofficial actions much more effective. That could make air travel less reliable, more costly, and less pleasant.
A Delta passenger threw coffee on passengers, overturned a drink cart, ran up and down the aisle and then assaulted an air marshal on a London – Salt Lake City flight.
The woman reported to a fellow passenger that she had a lot going on in her life. She may have also just been frustrated by how many SkyMiles the flight cost her.
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 »
