A woman was told she had 50,000 American AAdvantage miles expiring but she could extend them for a year for $100, payable by credit card over the phone.
Now, when you extend the validity of American Airlines AAdvantage miles they’re good for an additional year — not 18 months. And aside from AAdvantage not generally calling you about expiring miles, this person hasn’t had activity with American since 2010. Their miles are long gone.
On Monday United Airlines President Scott Kirby announced that they would pause the plan to replace quarterly bonuses with a much less expensive lottery program.
Last Friday they had come up with the lottery that would save the carrier perhaps $30 million per year, replacing bonuses of up to $300 per quarter per employee with big prizes given to just 1-2% of employees. And the backlash was brutal.
American’s regional fleet is going to remain equipped with Gogo’s air to ground internet. However they still have planes without any internet at all. Those planes don’t have any sort of inflight entertainment, either. And it turns out American doesn’t plan to add internet to their 50 seat regional jets. Period. At least that’s what American Airlines is telling employees.
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In recent days I’ve covered the questions that American Airlines employees are asking management – and the candid responses they’re getting.
American also answers employee questions in writing. These answers usually aren’t as illuminating because they aren’t as candid and on the spot. However there are still things we can learn.
Apparently frequent flyer elite members pull the “DYKWIA” — Don’t You Know Who I Am? — card far more often than infrequent travelers. And when they do things turn ugly.
Put another way, Russian SkyTeam carrier Aeroflot says that frequent flyer elites are more likely to be unruly onboard than other passengers. Can that be possible?
Right now one of biggest social experiments in the history of corporate America is playing out. There is over a billion dollars behind it.
If it works we all win. If it doesn’t investors burn through cash. But I don’t think many people even realize it’s happening. And the results either way have the power to reshape how we think about labor relations in this country (including how we think about unions).
An Oakland sex shop is trying to open in the San Francisco airport. It’s controversial, and it’s running into a procedural snag.
I see a need for a sex shop landside, before security so you can put stuff in a friend’s carry on before they go through the checkpoint and so you can buy something to check as baggage as a standalone item.
Back in the day frequent flyers and road warriors used to drive past half a dozen gas stations and ten extra miles to the Shell that accepted Diners Club even though the “low fuel” light had been on all day. We do crazy things for points.
A signup bonus and up to 3 miles per dollar is great. And both earning and burning points are a decent way to keep miles from expiring, buy gas at BP once every 18 months. At the margin it makes BP competitive with Shell (although neither gas is usually cheapest).
In 2016 I spent almost half the year in hotels. I earned Hyatt’s top tier status and I earned 100 night Starwood Platinum status.
said at the time that I wouldn’t hit 100 nights with Starwood again. I just wasn’t going to travel as much, and I still wanted to earn top tier with Hyatt too. I also knew that I could keep Starwood Platinum by signing up for the Ritz-Carlton credit card and spending $75,000 on it.
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 »
