The Trump Administration’s proposed budget eliminates the non-essential Essential Air Service program.
Created in the late 1970s as a temporary measure to soften the blow of deregulation, it’s a perfect example of the old axiom that there’s nothing as permanent in life as a temporary government program. The legislation included a ’10 year transition’ period in which small community service could receive subsidies. This was supposed to end in 1988.
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.
Middle seats are the worst. You’ve got someone on either side of you, so you can’t just lean over into the window or the aisle, and you’ve got two armrests to fight over not just one.
Often the passenger in the middle seat was disserviced on a previous flight. Or they paid the most for their ticket in the whole cabin, buying when there weren’t any aisle or window seats left. In either case the person who may be the most deserving of a better (or at least not deserving of a wose) experience gets exactly that. Over time there have been several ideas floated to address this.
American Airlines finally has a plan to put seat power in the legacy US Airways ‘basket of deplorables’ aircraft.
Since this is the management team that decided to remove seat power from planes that used to have it when America West took over US Airways, there’s a little small part of me that wonders if the whole thing wasn’t contrived to begin building the case not to make this investment.
Air Canada’s frequent flyer program Aeroplan was spun off into a separate public company in 2005. As a separate company, the frequent flyer program makes arms-length transactions with the airline and has a very extensive contract allowing it to buy a minimum number of seats and other benefits.
Air Canada expects to negotiate more favorable terms for the airline compared to the current contract which expires in 2020.
I checked into the Park Hyatt Sydney where I’ve had mixed luck at best with upgrades.
I arrived early on my first stay there and was told that my pre-assigned room wasn’t ready — but that if I wanted to pay an extra AUD$100 per day I could have an Opera View room. This wasn’t even a larger room, just an upgraded view, and if it was available I should have been offered it as a complimentary upgrade as a Hyatt Diamond.
Premium credit cards offer a dizzying array of benefits you probably didn’t even realize you had — or if you knew at one point, you probably forget when there’s an opportunity to use them.
Break a new electronic device, smash your rental car, run into a merchant who won’t take a return… or the price of something you recently bought drops after you already bought and started using it… there’s something that your credit card company can often do and you get started with a simple phone call.
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.
Yesterday American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker spoke at the J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation and Industrials Conference and it was… strange.
The crux of his talk was that American is worthwhile as a long-term investment, returning to his ongoing theme that investors should take a ‘leap of faith’ which of course isn’t what investors think they should generally be doing.
Air France KLM Flying Blue — a surprisingly valuable, strategic frequent flyer program — is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Rewards.
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 »
