Apr 04 2016

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America held an investor call this morning to walk through the deal that came together over the weekend.

Regarding the Virgin America brand, Alaska “want[s] to learn more about it.” You ‘d think they’d have some idea the value of the brand and how (if) to deploy it before spending $2.5 billion — $600 million in cash and taking on $2 billion in debt (while picking up half a billion in cash from Virgin America). Currently Virgin America pays 0.7% of revenue off the top to Virgin for the brand.

Alaska claims they initiated the deal, and JetBlue got into the bidding after they started negotiating.

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Apr 04 2016

With the Anbang saga presumably behind us, shareholder votes on the Marriott acquisition of Starwood scheduled for April 8, we can return to a discussion of what the future of Starwood — and Marriott — will look like. And as they say, ‘where you stand depends on where you sit.’

The deal should be approved at the shareholder meeting April 8. The transaction should close during summer. And the big hairy work to figure out what Marriott wants to do with Starwood, now that they’ve won her, will really begin — strategic decisions, then massive IT projects. Eventually some hotel brands will disappear though not for awhile. And some Sheraton hotels will be stricken from the earth as a cancer on the brand. So that part at least is for the good.

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Apr 04 2016

Alaska Airlines announced that it is acquiring Virgin America at $57 per share or ~ $2.6 billion in a transaction expected to close by January 1, 2017.

Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan will be the surviving loyalty program. They’re being non-committal about the Virgin brand at this point, although it seems inconceivable they would continue to pay to licensing.

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Apr 03 2016

Virgin America’s market cap was about $1.15 billion a week and a half ago. Speculation began about a buyout and the company closed worth closer to $1.5 billion on Friday.

Last Monday JetBlue and Alaska Airlines were revealed to be the leading contenders to buy Virgin America. Yesterday it looked like Alaska would seal the deal at about $2 billion.

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Alaska will wind up the victor — but at a cash price of $2.5 billion.

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Apr 03 2016

Some banks will unofficially give a grace period to meet minimum spend requirements towards a bonus. I sure wouldn’t want to test that theory. Know how much you need to spend to earn a signup bonus, and when you need to spend it by.

Know also what spending counts towards the bonus and what spending doesn’t.

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Apr 03 2016

Mid-last week Alaska Airlines made no-notice changes to their Emirates award charts for business and first class travel, raising prices by as much as 100%. Overnight the price of business class and first class awards went up — a lot. A first class roundtrip between the US and Africa on Emirates went from 200,000 to 400,000 miles.

Alaska offered an explanation. It turns out that Alaska Airlines has changed their mind about why they did it, and is offering a new and different explanation.

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Apr 03 2016

Designer Seymourpowell has come up with a new ‘First Spaces’ interior for the Airbus A380 that could rival the most revolutionary and luxurious first class seat in the skies.

It doesn’t quite offer as much space as Etihad’s ‘beyond product’ The Residence which even offers a private shower onboard.

The idea is akin to the First Apartment onboard Etihad’s Airbus A380s, but instead of a separate seat and bench that folds out into a bed — with some passengers complaining that the seat doesn’t really recline much — the seat here does turn into a bed so offers an in-between lounging mode.

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Apr 03 2016

Qantas and Tesla raced a Boeing 737-800 against a Model S P90D in ludicrous mode on a runway at Avalon airport Southwest of Melbourne.

I drove a Tesla last summer at a Hyatt event. It was super cool, I loved it, but would never buy a $100,000 car even factoring tax breaks and savings on gas. (I also wouldn’t pre-commit to a cheaper model with a quarter million preorders, that’s too much demand outstripping supply and despite the price won’t be a ‘good deal’.)

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Apr 03 2016

An Air China co-pilot going by ‘Andy’ attracted a social media following of 72,000 on Weibo under the username 90000xiaobao posting videos of himself performing his duties. His posts went viral and he’s been suspended.

One criticism of the pilot? Use of prohibited electronic devices inflight.

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Apr 03 2016

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.

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