Last month this blog and ExpertFlyer conducted a survey of frequent travelers for their habits, preferences, and predictions for air travel. Those results are in.
Engaged frequent travelers don’t think air travel is getting better, and are at least occasionally delayed. But club lounges are getting better, airport wifi is getting better, and net net the airport experiences is better than it used to be. But there were a few surprising finds.
The federal government has determined that some states are trying hard enough to comply with “REAL ID” drivers licenses. But it currently appears that 9 states and 3 territories will not have waivers from the law’s requirements as of January 10.
That does not mean residents of those states won’t be able to travel next year. It doesn’t even mean those drivers licenses won’t be valid at security checkpoints after that date — regardless of what happens politically, and it’s an election year.
But the federal government’s saber rattling on this issue is pathetic and a threat to freedom.
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.
Back in May when Etihad announced that their Airbus A380 would be serving New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, award space was wide open.
For awhile Etihad stopped making award seats available on the New York JFK – Abu Dhabi route. It was still possible to secure awards London – Abu Dhabi and occasionally from Abu Dhabi to Australia. Recently they started releasing seats very close to departure (e.g. within a day of travel).
Now Etihad is releasing award space in advance again in first class on the A380 for Abu Dhabi-New York JFK. And when they do there’s as many as 3 seats available.
Last week I wrote that American Lets Planes Go Out Mostly Empty Rather Than Letting Members Book Awards. Despite American’s new Los Angeles – Sydney flights going out mostly empty — 3/4ths empty in business class for instance, hours before flight — the airline wasn’t releasing any saver awards. Either day-of, or at any time over the course of the entire 331 day schedule. The premium cbains were going out full, occupied by nonrev travelers.
All of a sudden, with American’s revenue management folks back in the office, they’ve released some business and first class award space between now and the end of February, generally two seats per cabin per flight when available.
A week ago I reported that the TSA is taking away your right to opt out of naked imaging screening.
If you alarm inside the ‘advanced imaging’ device you get a thorough pat down. If you opt out, you go directly to that pat down. How requiring the imaging before the pat down is supposed to improve security (when TSA misses most things going through the checkpoint and the scanners are easy to foil by anyone trying anyway) makes no sense at all.
There’s been some speculation that –TSA only plans to deny opt outs to those on watch lists. But either by policy or practice, a reader reports a different experience.
The “cash and points trick” for buying IHG Rewards Club points at a discount just got a price cut, back to levels we haven’t seen since 2012.
Hainan Airlines is launching a new flight between Los Angeles and Changsha, China and is currently pricing it at $1358 roundtrip.
Visit China, use it as a jumping off point for Asia, and credit the miles to Alaska Airlines or Etihad.
Through Wednesday only United is again offering to sell miles at the lowest price I’ve ever seen from MileagePlus — in fact at 1.88 cents apiece it’s the price that US Airways used to sell miles for prior to the merger with American.
There are no hard and fast rules, only tendencies. And the tendency to devalue – which isn’t universal – is consistent with the trend towards rewarding less across the board, tying rewards to spending (while rewarding even high spend less), and then making tweaks to the less rewarding model as business needs dictate.
Business decisions made in isolation compound over time taking what was once a simple program and making it complex. Multiply that out over tens of millions of members that a given program is trying to serve and tweaks along the way get made which only add to the complexity.
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 »
