What the Rewards War Means for Bank Costs — and Its Only Just Heating Up

lounge
Dec 26 2016

The Financial Times ran a ‘big read’ piece last week on the battle for customers between credit card issuers, and featured my advice getting started with rewards and credit cards.

The piece began with a hypothesis from the author that blogs like this one have helped educate consumers about the value of points, and really compare offerings, so that consumers are much better at discerning differences — and therefore banks are having to really spend more to compete.

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Inside the New Kuwait Airways Boeing 777-300ER: World’s Cheapest Premium Long Haul Airline Gets Brand New Product!

Dec 26 2016

Kuwait Airways no longer flies between New York JFK and London because it would have had to carry Israeli passport holders to do so under US law, while the government of Kuwait does not recognize the state of Israel.

But they do fly non-stop between New York and Kuwait City. And they offer one of the least expensive premium products in the world. Historically that premium product has been awful (and they’re a dry airline to boot) but it’s cheap. For instance, here’s Cairo – New York JFK in business class for $592.

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How Much Do Airlines Really Pay for New Planes?

airport hangar
Dec 25 2016

Aircraft manufacturers have highly inflated ‘list’ prices. When they announce sales, they announce the value of an order based on list prices rather than what an airline will actually pay for the planes.

They try to keep secret actual purchase prices, because they don’t want to broadcast to all potential buyers how much of a discount they’ll really give. At the same time it’s hardly a secret that no one pays list.

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Drunk Passenger Refused Service Lights Cigarette, Drinks His Own Booze, and Bites Flight Attendant’s Ear

klm planes
Dec 24 2016

A passenger was arrested upon landing after KLM flight 605 from Amsterdam to San Francisco on Wednesday after fighting with his girlfriend, smoking onboard, and biting a flight attendant’s ear.

Our hero Jonah Cayle Snow got into a fight “after flight attendants asked the allegedly already heavily-inebriated Snow to put out his cigarette and refrain from drinking.”

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