Emirates Says No to Merger With Etihad, Is The Ruling Family of Dubai Telling the Truth?

by Gary Leff

people boarding from tarmac
May 11 2018

Etihad was an airline that started when Gulf Air eliminated its Abu Dhabi hub and the ruling Al Nahyan family sought to preserve and grow the capital of the UAE as a center of aviation.

But cash and ambition was never going to be enough to turn around carriers like Alitalia and air berlin. They were basket cases. And the ruling Al Nahyans finally decided to stop lighting money on fire as the price of energy fell. They axed the CEO of their airline who, ironically, they had poached in the first place from Gulf Air.

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Yours is a Very Bad Hotel — or At Least You Have a Very Bad Desk Clerk

by Gary Leff

photo of man
May 11 2018

Probably the most famous hotel complaint ever is the 2001 Powerpoint Yours is a Very Bad Hotel created by Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison from Seattle who showed up at what was then the Doubletree in Houston. Though they had guaranteed reservations they were being walked and the desk clerk couldn’t have cared less.

I was reminded of that complaint when I saw this video of a front desk clerk losing it at the Country Inn & Suites in Newport News, Virginia last week.

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New Apple Credit Card – Called Apple Pay – Launching Next Year

by Gary Leff

iphone 5s
May 10 2018

Barclays currently issues the Apple credit card. It’s fairly weak — no signup bonus, 3 points per dollar at Apple and 2 points at restaurants, with points you can redeem for Apple and iTunes gift cards.

There are no ‘benefits’ for being an Apple cardmember which I’ve never understood, other than a built-in financing offer for Apple products. Early access to products, special activations at Apple stores, some form of better treatment for cardmembers seems like a no brainer.

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An Updated Simple Model Ranks the Best Hotel Programs

by Gary Leff

building overlooking water
May 10 2018

Loyalty has two primary components: recognition and reward. That’s your elite program and your earn and burn proposition.

Hotel programs are tough to compare because you earn a different number of points per dollar spent, and redemptions vary wildly as well — the most expensive Hyatt redemption is 30,000 points while the most expensive Hilton redemption costs 95,000. We can normalize that by looking at the number of points earned, and the value of each point.

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US Government Will Audit Its Own Safety Oversight of American Airlines and Allegiant

by Gary Leff

american plane
May 10 2018

Under pressure to ‘do something’ the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General is going to audit the FAA’s oversight of American Airlines and Allegiant. This is a change in focus of an existing audit launched at the behest of Democrats in Congress last summer.

It’s a concern, apparently, that the FAA takes a collaborative approach to safety rather than focusing on finding violations it can fine.

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Since American is Taking Out Seat Back Video, Prepare With an Amazon Tablet for $20

by Gary Leff

back airplane tv
May 09 2018

American Airlines is getting rid of seat back video from its domestic fleet. As part of their “Project Oasis” retrofit even planes that have seat back screens are going to have those removed.

While American claims 90% of customers bring their own devices, so screens are unnecessary, that number can’t possibly be right unless “devices” include “flip phones.” Older travelers and children frequently don’t have their own devices. A family of five probably doesn’t own five tablets.

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