American Airlines was behind United and Delta in devaluing its award chart and its elite program because it had bigger fish to fry. Finishing the US Airways merger came first. The internal mantra was “integrate before we innovate.”
But key elements of backend integration are slipping, there are huge gaps in American’s IT that drive customer service costs and limit revenue growth, while American focuses on reprogramming who gets upgrades.
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.
Regular readers know that I love the Maldives. I’ve been 5 years in a row. It’s the only place I’ve found where I can really unplug. The distance is a feature not a bug, by the time I get there I’m really ready to relax and the time difference helps me to do it — I can answer work emails in the morning, and everyone is gone from the office the rest of the day so I can just enjoy myself.
I’ve gone to the same place each time, because I could use points, but there are some fantastic properties that I’d love to try some day. One that’s really worth checking out is Loama Resort.
You’re going to get to stay there before me, because I’m giving a stay to a reader.
One of the best things about Starwood Preferred Guest is that they have many participating properties that are really nice, aspirational places where I really want to spend my points.
I make a lot of business stays at cookie cutter hotels domestically. I like to reward myself with special, unique stays which the points I earn make possible.
Hyatt is back with the same promotion they offered April through June just with a different name. Instead of ‘Stay More Play More’ this one is called ‘More Points More Play’.
Registration begins September 1, and stays September 1 through November 30 will earn incrementally more bonus points — up to 75,000 points.
This is disgusting. The flight was on Thursday, and charges were filed Monday.
Let’s not get into the particulars of what happened on the flight. Really, let’s not get into those. There are two uniquely striking things about this case, however.
Delta business class saver awards between the US and Europe were 62,500 miles each way. That’s the price from the no-notice devaluation for travel June 2014 onward.
Now, for travel January 1 onward, US-Europe will be 70,000 miles each way at the saver level. There was no notice given for this change, it’s simply in effect. That’s an increase of 15,000 miles roundtrip.
Delta and Alaska were once close partners. In fact, at one point it was expected that their partnership could grow to exclude American (which also partners with Alaska).
Instead Delta has built up a hub operation in Seattle — first for transpacific flights, and then feeding those flights with its own domestic route network rather than transferring passengers on its partner Alaska.
And there have been fantastic offers ever since…
A little over a week ago I wrote about a no-notice change that American AAdvantage made to their program: different AAnytime award prices for different flights on the same day.
While American acknowledged that the screen shots I was providing were not a glitch, they haven’t offered comment on these changes which went into effect without any notice to members. I dug into this a bit more and think I know what American is doing, and it’s neither as technology sophisticated nor as insidious as I’d have feared.
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.
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 »
