Uber’s Confidential Financials Revealed. They Lose Money On Every Ride But Make it Up on Volume.

by Gary Leff

Jan 17 2016

Uber is ostensibly valued at over $60 billion. To really be ‘worth’ that they have to grow rapidly, and arguably beyond on demand ridership into a ‘transportation logistics company’ moving goods and not just people. And they have to actually make money.

While there are certainly network effects — the more consumers use Uber, and the more drivers offering rides on their platform, the more valuable they are. The first person with a fax machine had a useless piece of equipment. There was no one to send them anything, and they couldn’t send a document to anyone else. The fax machine became more valuable the more people that had them. But even there, when’s the last time you sent a fax? I believe I’ve sent two in the past year.

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Earn Hundreds of Thousands of Miles for Real Estate

by Gary Leff

Jan 16 2016

Miles for real estate transactions used to be a pretty big thing. When I bought a condo in 2006 I earned six figures in United miles for being referred to a realtor. Basically they were rebating a bit more than half their commission in the form of United miles.

People usually think that meant I had to work with whatever real estate agent was assigned to me. That’s not the case at all. Instead, I simply needed to work with the brokerage firm I was referred to. I didn’t think much of the first agent I got, so I had the brokerage manager re-assign me to someone far sharper.

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Man Uses Boarding Pass Implanted in His Hand at Security, Lounge, and Gate

by Gary Leff

Jan 16 2016

I hate paper, so don’t love paper boarding passes – whether printing them at home or queuing up at the airport. Since I mostly fly American Airlines domestically I use their mobile app. One catch though is that I always pull up my boarding passes when I check in for a flight, even my connecting pass, in case I don’t have great connectivity (or there’s some other glitch) when I go to board my flight. The app saves the boarding pass so I can use it even if I can’t update it.

I don’t usually download apps for carriers I fly less frequently though, so I’m stuck with paper since I don’t want to clutter my phone. It’s never occurred to me to inject an NFC chip into my hand…

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How to Fix an Award Ticket that Your Airline Screws Up

by Gary Leff

Jan 16 2016

Reader Susan contacted me about a problem with an award ticket she had booked. She had business class awards flying Denver – Los Angeles – Honolulu – Sydney with travel to Honolulu on American connecting to Qantas.

She tried to rebook onto Qantas San Francisco – Sydney which was showing available. The agent changed her reservation and queued the award tickets for re-issue. When the tickets didn’t get issued, she called and learned that her reservation was cancelled.

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Flight Attendants Trained to Report Asian American Women to the Police Because See Something, Say Something

by Gary Leff

Jan 15 2016

Earlier in the week I wrote that the Department of Homeland Security wants hotel desk clerks to snitch on guests as possible sex traffickers based on a set of behavior that could match that of plenty of guests.

It turns out that they want flight attendants to do this also, and so a married couple was detained at New York JFK because the crew thought they fit the ‘profile’.

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