Over the history of the airline industry in the United States, carriers have been subsidized and then protected by government. Prices even used to be set by government, and no shows were a lot higher than they are today.
The story of how airlines started overbooking and why they do it much less than they used to is a fascinating one. It actually begins with the Post Office.
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.
Etihad is now selling miles, the price is reasonable, so this could be useful to top off an Etihad account, take the place of transfers from American Express or Citibank, saving those points for something else, or work in conjunction with transfers, you may not have enough Amex or Citi points on their own for the award you want but this option leverages your transferrable points.
The next IHG Rewards Club promotion is in the process of going live. It came right up for me, though if I use Google Chrome’s incognito mode I get the ‘promotion ended’ page from their last offer.
They’re coming out with ‘Accelerate’ again for stays between May 15 and August 31 you earn even more points. And in some ways it’s my favorite hotel promotion — not as much for its richness as much because it is sort of fun. It’s tough to get a thrill over double points for stays you’re going to make anyway.
We first learned from passengers what happened on board the United flight where a passenger was dragged off by Chicago Aviation Police and bloodied in the process.
This week, through released documents, we learned the Police version of events.
United has announced the results of reviewing its procedures in the aftermatch of Dr. David Dao’s bloody removal from a flight earlier this month. There are several policy changes and they tell me their goal is to reduce involuntary denied boardings to zero.
When a man was dragged off a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville and bloodied after refusing to give up the seat he was sitting in so that employees could travel on the flight and operate a flight back to O’Hare, it was a cultural moment of sorts.
In American Express’ first quarter earnings call they shared that their costs to provide benefits are going up. One of the reasons they called out for this surprised me.
Hilton has launched a new feature and announced their next promotion with starts May 1. The promotion is fairly standard — except that Diamond members get a strong additional bonus.
Etihad offers my favorite first class in the world onboard their Airbus A380 — the “First Apartment.” There are two apartments across the cabin with a single aisle between them upstairs on the A380, in contrast on the same plane Emirates — known as one of the world’s best airlines for first class — has four suites across.
Etihad First Apartment — Single Aisle
There’s an onboard shower, an onboard chef (generally a flight attendant with real restaurant kitchen experience who can customize your meals as you wish), solid internet and good amenities.
Delta is promoting its new New York JFK – Downtown helicopter transfer partnership with Blade as though it’s especially innovative.
Airlines have offered helicopter transfers for years, for instance Continental used to offer free helicopter transfers with paid business tickets out of Newark and even let you redeem 10,000 extra miles for a helicopter transfer on business class awards.
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 »
