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.
Air Europa is launching its own frequent flyer program, Suma on Monday, December 14.
Like Copa and United, Air Europa has decided to build its own program rather than renting the loyalty engine of a larger partner carrier.
Sort of like the development of the atomic bomb, Southwest’s reservations system upgrade project’is a dangerous technology and we promise not to use it’.
Getting in bed with and cutting deals with politicians brought down former United CEO Jeff Smisek. Smisek had – alongside the CEOs of Delta and American – been complaining that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar get sweetheart deals from their own governments.
So I’m struck by the gall of United, in their news that they’ll be ending service to Dubai on January 23, they’re blaming the decision on the loss of subsidies from the US government.
Three years ago American Airlines introduced pre-order meals. Premium cabin customers can pre-select their meal choice either online or over the phone within 30 days of (and up to 24 hours prior to) travel.
American took the feature down off of its website back in September in advance of moving US Airways onto the American reservations system. But the feature is now back.
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.
United Airlines has opened the business class award floodgates on several flights between the US and Europe for next summer with as many as 9 (and perhaps more) award seats per flight.
This is especially concentrated out of Washington Dulles, though there are some flights out of Chicago like this and even a few from Newark. It’s especially true on flights that have recently been upgauged to Boeing 777s, though not exclusively. (Legacy United Boeing 777 business class is dorm-style 8-across, but if fully flat.)
Many of you know that I offer an award booking service. It grew too big to handle on my own, and I was fortunate enough to be able to partner with one of the real veterans and gurus in the frequent flyer game, Steve Belkin (known in online forums as ‘beaubo’).
One of the really fun projects he’s had is called Competitours. Every summer, Steve disappears from work to run what the Chicago Tribune calls “The Amazing Race for Regular People.”
28 years ago Alaska Airlines predicted that their competitors would be charging coach passengers to use the lavatories.
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) has introduced the Comfortable and Fair Flights Act of 2015 which would prohibit airlines from charging passengers to use the lavatory. Even though no airline has ever done it.
I’m actually reasonably excited about yesterday’s American Airlines announcement that they’ll be adding a premium economy product to their international widebody fleet (other than their Boeing 767s which are slated for retirement).
The only meaningful downside, it seems to me, is the potentially bad news surrounding the unanswered question of how upgrades will work — whether the introduction of premium economy means that upgrading from economy will mean a premium economy seat, rather than a business class seat. But it doesn’t have to mean that at all.
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 »
