Apr 02 2016

Air France is scheduled to restart Paris – Tehran service in two weeks time. However, there’s a backlash against rules imposed on Air France crews who will be operating the flights.

France is largely secular, and attitudes towards Islam are in many ways quite negative. France, and Air France, is also quite unionized. So imposing working conditions that subjugate women to the demands of Islam is naturally unpopular.

Air France is threatening ‘penalties against crew not observing the dress code suggesting that “air crew were ‘obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled’.”

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Apr 02 2016

A week and a half ago word got out that Virgin America was shopping itself to potential buyers. There was plenty of speculation about who those buyers could be.

While some speculated it could be Delta, Hainan Airlines, or Etihad, on Monday it was reported that both JetBlue and Alaska were bidding for the airline.

Now it appears that Alaska Airlines is close to a deal to acquire Virgin America at a big price premium and it could be announced as soon as Monday.

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Apr 02 2016

American offers its co-brand credit card holders a discount of up to 3750 miles each way (7500 miles roundtrip) on domestic award tickets for a rotating series of destinations. (US Airways used to offer a discount on all awards taken on their own flights for their co-brand credit card holders.)

With the introduction of new 7500 mile one-way redemptions for flights up to 500 miles, a 3,750 mile award (7500 – 3750) for co-brand cardholders seemed like it would be too good a deal to be true. And it was — while the new short haul awards went into effect March 22, the airline suspended discounts on short haul awards through March 31.

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Apr 02 2016

Starwood’s new 8-K filing with the SEC walks through the timeline of Anbang’s attempt to top Marriott’s offer to acquire the chain.

I believe Anbang’s $78 offer for Starwood was likely better than Marriott’s offer of 0.8 shares and $21. While worth just over $79 at the time the offer was made, the Marriott deal is worth closer to $75 today. The only real benefit of the revised Marriott offer to Starwood’s shareholders is the possibility of tax deferment.

However Starwood’s board disagreed (and the near-doubling of Starwood officers’ golden parachutes in the second Marriott deal surely had nothing to do with it).

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Apr 02 2016

Turkish Airlines is offering amazing award availability between several US cities and Istanbul. I’d act quickly because 8 or more award seats in business class per flight simply will not last.

Turkish flights are feast or famine for award space. They opened business awards every day when they launched their San Francisco route. Historically Chicago – Istanbul has been the easiest flight on which to secure space. I’ve always had a tough time with Washington Dulles – Istanbul.

In the US they serve Boston, Chicago, New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, and Atlanta.

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Apr 02 2016

An Atlas Air Boeing 767 was landing in Phoenix when an emergency slide deployed. The aircraft was at 2800 feet.

“It was a loud bang and then the house actually shook ..It just smelled like sulfur burning.. Someone else had called 911 and said that they had seen an object falling from an airplane”

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Apr 01 2016

When I first started traveling on business 20 years ago, and signing up for all of the loyalty programs of the airlines I was flying, people used to talk about saving their miles up over a lifetime.

It was common to think of miles as a retirement fund. Some people would travel for work and tell an annual vacation with their family on points. But others just wouldn’t have the time, such is the way Americans think of work and leisure. So they’d accumulate miles over many years with a plan to use those miles ‘some day’. And some day was often thought of as retirement, when there’d be nothing but time.

Devaluations changed all of that. It’s clear that the miles you earn now will never be worth more in the future than they are worth today. In fact pretty much any stash that you sit on for more than a couple of years will become worth less.

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Apr 01 2016

In mid-November American offered a purchase miles bonus through November 30 that they extended through January 4 which allowed you to buy miles at 2 cents apiece.

Then they dropped the price even further to 1.8 cents. The promo pricing went back to 2 cents for February. Now they’ve returned to 1.8 cents.

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Apr 01 2016

Emirates, Etihad, ANA, Asiana, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Swiss — fantastic airlines which offer fantastic first class products. We can (and do!) get into debates all day about which airlines are the best, at least if you’re an ‘avgeek’ like me, and even have intense disagreements over which one belongs in the number 5 spot versus number 6.

But the very best first class products all have something in common. They’re offered onboard the superjumbo Airbus A380s which simply have more space to offer more privacy and more amenities. So the A380 first class product has things in each case that the ‘normal’ first class product does not.

Three airlines, on their flagship A380s, offer a first class that’s beyond all others. And I think any fair-minded observer will rank these as the three best first class offerings in the world, the A380 first class onboard Etihad, Emirates, and Singapore.

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Apr 01 2016

I’ve been a huge fan of Uber since they began disrupting the taxi industry.

But Uber’s market position, while greater than Lyft’s, isn’t really protected by significant barriers to entry.. though in becoming in many cases pro-regulation they’ve tried to impose costs on other services that might start.

I like competition and so I’ve been using Lyft more. Lyft gives out $50 in new rider credits, which is more than Uber’s been doing ($15 – $20).

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