One of my cousins booked a United MileagePlus award to Warsaw. She was meeting her brother there — he booked an award, too, in business class. She doesn’t have as many miles, she was in coach.
She was booked on a double connection via Newark and Zurich. Weather was slowing down air traffic in the Northeast.
The most crucial thing to know about this lounge is that it’s much less crowded than it used to be —
precisely because the Flagship Lounge is open and so many more people now have access there. Everyone flying international business class, American’s mid-tier elites flying international economy, and oneworld partner mid-tier elites used to all crowd into the Admirals Club. Now they’re granted access to the Flagship Lounge and the Admirals Club is used for a narrower passenger base.
IdeaWorks has put out a new study on airline ancillary fees (.pdf). They rank the airlines earning the most in ancillary fees, and explain where the money comes from.
I’m not going to focus on the ultra low cost carriers around the world although the data there is interesting. Instead my interest is piqued looking at the major US airlines and the contribution of their frequent flyer programs to ‘other income’ at each.
All the major hotel chains are working hard to get you to ‘book direct’ with them. It’s not really working overall, since they don’t appear to be eating into the share of reservations of Expedia, Priceline, etc.
These efforts aren’t new. But Hyatt’s new reward for finding a lower price on a competing site is.
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 Monday evening 46 year old Aussie Gregory Butler reportedly pounded on the cockpit door of an AirAsia flight AK371 at 9:20pm from Bali to Kuala Lumpur claiming that someone was trying to kill him — causing the pilot to return to the gate.
Curiously, the man wasn’t taken into custody or apparently even questioned. The flight was cancelled, the man left the aircraft, and thus began a ‘freak out’ and 90 minute standoff..
Barron’scarries a piece recommending investment in major US airlines. The argument is that interest rate hikes mean that the economy will be strong and airlines will benefit, and record high stock prices in the sector somehow mean those prices will rise further.
Airline frequent flyer programs have bigger credit card deals than ever before. Each of Delta, American, and United are bringing in over $2 billion a year from their cards. And their frequent flyer programs earn better than 50% margins.
However the future isn’t all that bright. Stifel analyst Joe DeNardi has suggested airline stocks could be worth double their values if only the market realized how great these frequent flyer programs are.
Airlines earnings calls are often fascinating. You’d expect airlines to say as little as possible in public, even in respoinse to analyst and journalist questions, but I still love to listen because executives will drop wisdom and share how they’re thinking broadly.
Scott Kirby has always been one of the best (and most infuriating as a customer) to listen to. United’s 2nd quarter earnings call this morning was no exception.
Offloading everyone — not just the passengers an airline wants to kick off — causes more of a delay. It’s more of an inconvenience for other passengers and more costly to the airline. But when everyone’s getting off, the passengers you want to offload generally do to. And they do without physical violence.
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 »
