When a loyalty program becomes less rewarding, it moves the needle with consumers less. That’s a fairly basic proposition.
It’s not any different than the idea that if you raise prices consumers buy less of your product. There are exceptions of course, where some goods become more desirable because they’re expensive, but those are real outliers. This works fairly consistently and reliably.
Delta saver business class awards between US and Europe are supposed to cost 70,000 miles each way unless you’re using SkyMiles to fly on a Delta airlines partner in which case they charge extra miles. At least that’s the theory.
Delta charges what Delta wants to charge sometimes. But you can do something about it when you book.
Inflight credit card announcements aren’t going to go away no matter how much customers complain. However I do think the announcements could be done in a way that’s friendlier for passengers — and more effective for card issuers and their co-brand partners.
CLEAR lets you skip to the front of the security line. You use a fingerprint for identification and even if you’re precheck you go ahead of everyone that’s waiting to have their ID checked.
Delta made an investment in CLEAR two years ago. That’s helped CLEAR to expand, and in turn Delta got their biometric technology which they’ve experimented with for aircraft boarding and for SkyClub access. In the future you should be able to check bags based on fingerprints rather than showing ID.
French Open champ Alona Ostapenko uses an Air Baltic Bombardier C Series. For practice. Watch this.
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I’d be concerned about passengers figuring out how the setup works, since they’re used to lavatories pretty much all operating the same way. Given the behavior and intellect of some of your fellow passengers, airlines would probably need to hang a sign inside that says “don’t eat the big white mint.”
Delta, JetBlue, and even United have expanded cross country flying with lie flat seats. For months American has been expected to do this too.
Back in March American Airlines confirmed privately that they plan to put Boeing 757s with lie flat seats on cross country domestic flights. But we’re still waiting.
Delta announced that they will fly to Mumbai, India next year. They haven’t said where they’ll fly from, but presumably it’ll be Atlanta where they can muster plenty of connecting traffic. New York has competing flights already from United and Air India, great for non-stop traffic, but a less than ideal city for connections.
They’re doing it because they have a great new partner in Jet Airways and a more fuel efficient aircraft in the A350 but they want you to think it’s because of Donald Trump.
Effective June 22 they’re making changes to mileage earning and redemption. This matters to folks in the U.S. because Asia Miles is a oneworld frequent flyer program (earn and redeem on American, British Airways, Japan Airlines, etc.) and because it’s a points transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards.
To me the most important takeaway is that roundtrip premium cabin long haul awards are getting more expensive.
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 »
