Delta laid out a plan for SkyMiles several years ago. And all they’re doing now is executing on it.
When Delta rolled out the revenue-based earning part of their big overhaul of SkyMiles, I wrote that they had planned to go to revenue-based redemption too but backed off of that late in the game.
Let’s peak behind the curtain of what they were planning.
American was pricing Brazil-issued tickets with the wrong currency conversion. This was posted on Flyertalk on August 20, and a bunch of people purchased all kinds of tickets at ~ 90% off.
American confirmed through several sources that these fares would be honored. …Now I’m seeing a bunch of reports that several folks are having their itineraries cancelled. I reached out to American to find out what was going on.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
I’m very impressed by what Delta has done with their brand new San Francisco Sky Club that opened this past week. It’s aesthetically gorgeous. And while complimentary food items remain limited (no matter how they trumpet the improvements there) they have a strong paid menu with a celebrity chef.
Delta’s Sky Club celebrity chef is Mai Pham who has two restaurants in Northern California and a Food Network show on Vietnamese food.
Amtrak announced their new revenue-based program which goes into effect January 24. And they laid out details that suggest points will be worth 2.56 apiece (Acela trains) or 2.9 cents apiece (all other service).
It turns out that the value of points presented is not true at all.
A reader asks about buying a connecting flight beyond their destination, instead of just buying a non-stop flight to their destination. They fly the same non-stop flight anyway, and just skip the connection. Good idea? Bad idea? What are the benefits, and what are the risks?
Amtrak launches their new revenue-based loyalty program January 24. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t nearly as bad as expected. But make no mistake that it is bad for the people it’s actually meant to reward.
Much of the analysis on other sites has focused on the strong points value, so folks accumulating points by methods other than actual train travel do fine (if not quite as well as the peak end as before). But I’m at least as interested in how the program performs as a mechanism of rewarding customers for train travel. And there it doesn’t fare well at all.
Air Canada published mistake business class prices for bundles of flight passes last week and they’re refusing to honor them. The only people who got to fly were those who booked immediate travel, before Air Canada acted.
I spoke to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s CBC News about mistake fares.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Data for 2015 is available and I find it fascinating what the 15 airline routes with the greatest capacity are for the year.
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 »
