British Airways Executive Club is a challenging program already: Fuel surcharges; extremely expensive premium cabin long haul awards; fuel surcharges; few elite benefits that aren’t provided to all oneworld elites of the same tier; fuel surcharges; modest mileage-earning since they eliminated 1 mile per mile flown.
And now we can expect things to get worse.
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.
On Saturday at the Miami International Airport a man sprinted onto a checked baggage conveyor belt behind an American Airlines ticket counter and out onto the tarmac.
He is then “seen being chased by an army of airport employees in neon vests.”
Saudi Arabia commandeered the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh to use as a prison as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved against powerful senior princes and government leaders over the weekend.
Now here are photos from inside the Ritz-Carlton prison.
Qatar Airways is buying 9.6% of oneworld partner Cathay Pacific for $662 million making Qatar the third largest shareholder of the Hong Kong-based airline. Swire Group owns 45% of the carrier and Air China owns 30%.
In addition to stakes in British Airways, Iberia, and Cathay, Qatar Airways owns 10% of LATAM and 49% of Italian carrier Meridiana.
Credit cards are big business. So figuring out how to deliver benefits most relevant to potentially high value consumers is big business too.
People usually forget about their credit card benefits beyond the most obvious ones — rewards, priority boarding, lounge access.
Air Canada’s Aeroplan, a Star Alliance member, is offering a 30% bonus transferring in points from hotel programs through December 11.
This is one of the most lucrative regular points conversion bonuses — but this time there are changes.
Emirates new first class on the Boeing 777 will shrink from 8 seats — two rows in a 1-2-1 configuration — down to 6 seats, 2 rows in a 1-1-1 configuration. The existing suite debuted in 2003.
The new Emirates product will be revealed November 12th at the Dubai Airshow but we now know that it will launch in service on December 1 from Dubai to:
Now Air France KLM Flying Blue has formally announced details of its new program which goes into effect April 1, 2018. And they’re both convoluted and I expect destructive of value — but we don’t yet know how destructive.
Reportedly Flying Blue has a goal with their changes of increasing revenue from the program by 15%. They’ve revealed that while they sometimes talk about 31 million members of the program, there are 15 million active members that can be communicated with and about 1.5 million elites, and that all members redeem about 400,000 award tickets per year.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has made a bold move to consolidate power, arresting senior princes, the wealthy, and former government leaders under the banner of a new anti-corruption campaign.
The group that was arrested included Prince al-Waleed bin Talal who is the largest individual shareholder in Citigroup, the second largest shareholder in 21st Century Fox, and owner of the Four Seasons George V in Paris.
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 »
