Here’s Why American Thinks Your Miles Are Worth Only 1/7th of a Cent Each

Oct 25 2017

In theory American believes they’ll sell out their flights the Sunday after Thanksgiving (though if that’s true, why are tickets just $133?) so they’re letting you redeem your miles at $0.0017 per mile.

That’s actually how much liability American has been accruing on its books for each mile they award for travel. The accounting changes January 1, and that may be why American is promising better award space.

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Get Free Bose Headphones When Buying $600+ Air and Hotel

Oct 25 2017

Upside is the new travel booking site from Priceline founder Jay Walker that launched publicly at the beginning of the year. Last summer I interviewed Jay about his history with Priceline and his new business idea.

For both business and leisure travelers they occasionally run compelling first-use bonuses like guaranteed gift card minimums that make booking through them a no-brainer.

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NAACP Issues Travel Warning Against American Airlines

british airways plane
Oct 25 2017

The NAACP, co-founded by the legendary W. E. B. Du Bois, was one of the most important organizations — not just civil rights organizations — in the history of America. It’s pursued some of the most important lawsuits in the country, and did incredibly important work fighting Jim Crow laws.

We need an NAACP, even one tilting at the windmill of everyone’s passenger experience onboard commercial airlines. But suggesting that American Airlines is targeting African Americans for discrimination is simply unsupported by any of the facts offered, and runs counter to many of the facts available.

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Broken Toilets are Keeping an Airline From Adding Seats to Their Planes

jetblue plane
Oct 24 2017

One of the ways airlines are squeezing more seats onto planes is by shrinking the lavatories. It’s part of American’s plan for 30 inch pitch coach on Boeing 737 MAX aircraft (and eventually retrofitting their existing 737s with more seats, too).

JetBlue is adding seats to their planes, though not quite as many, and they too are shrinking the lavs.

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