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.
A passenger successfully sued Lufthansa Group for failing to provide his pre-ordered kosher meal. Those of us in the U.S. consider would consider it a ‘man bites dog’ event.
Lufthansa argued that he paid for and received transportation. The court rejected this.
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’.”
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.
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.
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).
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.
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”
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.
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.
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 »
