We live in a very different travel world than the one I grew up in. I never thought I’d get to the place to where I said, “kids today!” And that’s as much about the people working in and setting policy for the airport, and the people working on the planes, as it is for the passengers… who aren’t all rainbows and unicorns themselves.
Pay attention, it’s a strange strange world we live in. Here’s what I saw this weekend.
Planning vacations contributes more to your happiness than actually taking them. You may need to go on vacation to justify all of the planning time.
Most people get all of their relaxation benefits on the trip itself. Don’t expect to be relaxed when you get back. We quickly snap back into the stress of daily life, sans any benefit from the vacation.
American is the only airline that continues to offer three-cabin first class on premium cross country flights. What I actually found interesting was the hedging by an American executive on the question of the future of the service, as opposed to the commitment that the executive purports to explain.
Programs issue too many miles. There aren’t enough award seats, especially with planes flying full. They need to either increase the number of award seats or increase the cost of each seat, otherwise you just have frustrated members who can’t redeem.
At the same time programs don’t need to spend as much marketing to fill planes when planes are already full. But that’s an argument for reduced earning, not for changing redemption prices.
Programs with set award prices (award charts) usually devalue in a predictable way.
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.
I took a set of connecting flights, and on flight number one was seated next to someone that was sick. Then I took my next flight. It was a completely sold out flight. I was initially thrilled with my upgrade at the gate. But once I settled into seat 5A I discovered that the passenger sitting behind me in 6A was sick as well.
Much coughing ensued. There was no opportunity to change seats. I guess I could have (should have) gotten off the plane. And I realize that this is a challenging question, what to do — for sick passengers, for those not wanting to get sick, and for the airline?
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.
Last month I wrote that more levels may be coming to the top of American AAdvantage. In fact, it seems inevitable.
With American’s merger with US Airways, they didn’t keep 4 (all) status levels. They kept American’s elite program, more or less, so 25,000, 50,000, and 100,000 mile levels. There are a lot of former US Airways 75,000 mile Platinum members that were unhappy in the transition since they no longer had status above 50,000 mile flyers.
And as with Delta, there’s a recognition that as the world’s largest airline with a much more comprehensive route network it’s possible to stay on one airline now and so there are more customers flying more miles with the airline. As if that wasn’t enough, American now makes it much easier to qualify when buying premium fares.
Regular readers of the blog know that I use Award Wallet to track my miles and points.
The free version of the service suffices for most. You enter your frequent flyer account numbers and passwords. Then you can update most of your account balances with a single click and see them on one page. You can log into your accounts with a single click.
When I first signed up I realized quickly I was happy to pay the minimum required for their premium membership that included expiration date tracking for many of my accounts.
It became commonplace in the past few year to declare the mileage run dead. And for the most part, the traditional mileage run has been dead for a long time. A combination of rising airfares and rising award prices meant that it no longer made sense to fly for the redeemable miles earned.
It didn’t used to be that way. Double, triple, and even quadruple miles offers abounded a dozen years ago. Airfares were low, $200 cross country roundtrips were common or even $500 roundtrips between the US and Southeast Asia (upgradable even).
I once cleared about 100,000 redeemable miles on a single roundtrip, and back then United’s business class awards between the US and Australia were 90,000 miles roundtrip. Sure, the opportunity cost of my time was lower back then. And there was no inflight internet. But I curled up with a good book.
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 »
