I Don’t Get Inflight Entertainment. Why Does It Matter?

May 06 2015

American Airlines sent out a press release this morning that I found rather confusing. It begins, American Airlines is putting entertainment options in the hands of more customers by launching its streaming video service on more than 200 additional aircraft in its domestic mainline fleet. They go on to talk about ‘seat-back video’ and ‘streaming’ together. American isn’t going to add seat back video to their fleet of MD80s with early generation gogo internet, those planes are on the way out. American’s new A319s and A321s come equipped with seat back video already. The new 737s entering the fleet do as well. Here’s the new American interior standard for domestic narrowbodies: New Boeing 737 Airbus A319 Airbus A321T The press release gets even more confusing, talking about not just streaming and seat back but even…

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LifeMiles Offering Up to 120% Bonus on Purchased Miles

May 06 2015

Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a purchased miles bonus through May 29 — a minimum of 100% bonus for everyone, but 120% for residents of certain countries. If your account is registered outside of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States it’s a 120% bonus instead. That would bring down the cost from 1.65 cents per mile to 1.5 cents per mile. The 20% discount doesn’t materially change the value proposition. It can be a good deal with a specific use in mind for the miles, and you can buy up to 75,000 miles (plus bonus — so receiving 150,000 for US residents). I don’t like investing in LifeMiles speculatively though. In the past they’ve tweaked some award prices without notice. When Avianca joined…

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Starwood Offering ‘Faster Free Nights’ and Other Targeted Offers

May 05 2015

Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently.

This morning I received an email offering me a targeted promotion. The email didn’t tell me what I would get.

It’s interesting they’re imploring me to ‘come back’. I haven’t stayed with Starwood in a month.

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Club Carlson Offers a New Elites-Only Bonus to Help Offset Their Devaluations

May 05 2015

When Club Carlson announced that their co-brand Visa will stop giving second night free on award stays, they offered something of a sweetener to make the news go down more easily. They announced 30,000 bonus points on your next stay paid with the card by August 31. It turns out that any room charge even on an award stay is enough to trigger this bonus. Now Club Carlson is changing the points prices of a number of their hotels, and net net not for the better, I suppose it should be seen as part and parcel of their approach that they are offering elites 5000 bonus points per stay in June and July that’s booked this month. (HT: Flyertalk) I do expect the changes and this promotion are related — to get elites to continue…

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