Emirates Saves the Airbus A380 With Big New Order

by Gary Leff

shower in plane
Jan 18 2018

Airbus has been telling anyone that would listen that if Emirates didn’t place a new A380 order they’d shut down the program. The plane would enter a death spiral. Without an ongoing program for the aircraft, the value of the Emirates fleet would drop and replacement parts for the aircraft would become harder to get.

Emirates placed an order for 36 more Airbus A380s adding to the 101 currently in their fleet and the 41 already on order. That will bring their total A380 fleet to 178 — if they take delivery of all the aircraft.

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The Psychology of Getting Someone Started With Miles and Points

by Gary Leff

pier on beach
Jan 16 2018

I was e-mailing with Stephen M. about his son’s credit card strategy, credit score, and options. He observed that he’s been focused on getting the most from rewards ‘for at least 8 years’ but “it is kind of funny, I tell people who travel a lot about it, but very few do it seriously.”

When frequent flyer programs began in the U.S. programs would give you 5000 miles if you spent all your points. That’s because they were afraid you would no longer be locked into an airline if you spent all your miles, you’d get off the treadmill and become a free agent. They stopped doing that. And the reason why is telling.

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