What Cities Are Getting the Most New Airline Traffic — and Which are Shrinking the Most

by Gary Leff

May 30 2016

Airline traffic is growing worldwide. As populations and economics grow, the need to keep them connected only gets stronger. And buoyed by low fuel prices, the economics of routes that didn’t make sense just a few years ago have changed to at least encourage airlines to try new places to fly where they wouldn’t have taken the risk in the past.

As a result most cities are seeing increased air service. In fact, 94 of the 100 busiest airports grew the number of available seats year-over-year.

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The Future of Credit Card Rewards in the U.S. — More Like Europe and the Rest of the World

by Gary Leff

credit cards
May 30 2016

One of the controversial things I believe is that the economics of credit cards in the US will change drastically in the coming years.

New payment technologies will compete down credit card interchange rates, making it uneconomic for banks to offer frequent flyer miles as incentives for spending on their cards. Basically that competition will do to credit card mileage earning what the Durbin Amendment did to debit cards.

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HURRY: American Airlines Europe Business Class Awards and Upgrades Wide Open

by Gary Leff

May 30 2016

American AAdvantage has been extremely stingy with international award space on its own flights over the past three to four years; premium award space doubly so.

Especially in the first quarter of 2017, but also late in 2016, American’s flights to and from Paris have opened up across the board for awards and upgrades. In the first quarter of 2017 London is wide open from several cities. And other European destinations are available, too.

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New Etihad First Class Lounge Finally Open!

by Gary Leff

etihad-lounge
May 30 2016

Etihad has opened its new first class lounge at their Abu Dhabi airport home. First class passengers no longer need to use the ‘roped off section’ of the business class lounge, that’s no really different than the rest of the lounge except that a staff member will bring you drinks (and your spa treatment is free).

There’s there’s cooked to order food including a tasting menu. There’s a cigar lounge (unclear whether cigars are complimentary or paid) with recommendations on pairing each cigar with whiskey or cognac. There’s both a Six Senses Spa and Style & Shave as well as a fitness room.

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How to Get Real Innovation in Air Travel

by Gary Leff

May 29 2016

Frequent flyers complain about airlines and even occasionally call to re-regulate them. But those calls fail to recognize that airlines are in fact one of the most highly regulated industries as it is, and what the Airline Deregulation Act did was free up airlines to compete on schedule and price.

The government no longer had to approve new routes, and no longer set prices, with the closing of the Civil Aeronautics Board. The CAB used to protect the airlines, not consumers by limiting what was termed ‘ruinous competition’. They ensured prices were set high enough to earn profits.

Calls to re-regulate the airlines, then, are in some sense anti-consumer. They’re calls to ensure higher profits and less choice.

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What’s the Best Wallet for the Credit Card Obsessed?

by Gary Leff

May 29 2016

I’d love some reader advice on what wallet to carry for someone who has a lot of credit cards and doesn’t want to leave them all in a drawer… but without spending a ton of money and still getting something decent-looking that I can take out in a business environment to pay for a meal.

For a few years I had a great wallet. It wasn’t great because it was a $265 Ghurka wallet. In fact, I had never heard of Ghurka when I bought it, I got it for free by stacking multiple deals at Vente-Privee and I only wanted it because it had five credit card slots on each side. And, of course, I could stick more than one card in each slot.

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American’s Pilots Hate the Focus on “D0” Almost as Much as Passengers Do

by Gary Leff

May 29 2016

Many things go into whether or not a flight arrives on time. American’s management argues that what they can most control is whether the flight departs on time, and if it does, that’s going to be the single biggest driver of on time arrivals.

So American Airlines management is singularly focused on what they refer to as “D0” — departing exactly the minute that a flight is scheduled to depart (the government considers a flight to be ‘on time’ when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule).

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