US airlines have been making a fuss that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar receive subsidies and it’s unfair they should have to compete against those carriers. (Subsidies for US airlines are, of course, ok.) The airlines largely don’t compete with each other now, with a couple of flights to Dubai between them the US carriers and a couple of flights to India. The big worry is an expansion of service like Emirates’ New York – Milan flight. Although ironically, of the 3 the weakest case they have is against Emirates. While their eye is on the 3 big Gulf carriers (and not on Kuwaiti which flies New York – London, or Delta partner Saudi), the real competitive risk that they face comes from low cost carriers who will outcompete US airlines on price and where that…
Avis Launching New Elite Program
Avis has been working on a new elite program for some time. It looked imminent to launch in the fall but was delayed. It appears that Avis in Europe is now emailing out details of the new program to members, and the Bonusfeber site has the scoop.
Delta Flies “Crap Airplanes”
A month ago I offered the simple political truth that When Your Airline CEO Adversary Commits Political Suicide, Just Stand Back and Let Him. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker, however, doesn’t know — or simply cannot — do this. Instead he feels the need to make incendiary claims that shine the spotlight back on himself.. to his detriment. At a conference today he reiterated his take on the ongoing row with US airlines over subsidies received by the largest Middle East carriers. “I think Mr Anderson (CEO of Delta, Richard Anderson) doesn’t know the difference between equity and subsidy. We never receive any subsidy,” Baker said. “The state of Qatar is the owner of Qatar Airways and whatever funds are put into the airline is as equity, which is quite legitimate. “The unfortunate thing is…
Credit Card Experiments and a New 70,000 Point Signup Bonus
News and notes from around the interweb: Consumers paying by credit card tend to spend more. Here’s an interesting experiment on how to get them not to. (HT: Marginal Revolution) Self-control in this regard is critical for benefiting from credit card rewards. The Marriott Rewards co-brand small business card is available with a 70,000 point signup bonus Air India held open interviews for Captain positions and literally no one showed up US airlines claim Emirates’ 2-for-1 promotion is proof of unfair competition. Not one has said the same thing about Virgin America’s 2-for-1 promotion. How TripAdvisor Changed Travel (HT: Marginal Revolution) Those free Qantas first class tickets? A scam.
Review: Westin Arlington (Best Value in the DC Area on Weekends)
The hotel opened in spring 2006. The hotel is in the DC suburbs — but located just two blocks to the Ballston metro, Orange line straight shot into the city. It pulls high rates during the week, it’s a business hotel that brings people visiting the FDIC, the EPA’s Fish and WIldlife Service, and DARPA and various other government agencies and consulting firms doing business with government agencies. On the weekends though? Dead. And the rates show it. Which makes it a great place to base DC tourism. The hotel just dropped from category 5 to category 4, so award nights are 10,000 points — a good deal when the property is pulling ~ $300 during the week, not a good deal when it’s in the $100 vicinity of course. I certainly like this hotel…
United’s New Look at LAX Revealed and Richard Branson Boycotts the Maldives (Where He Didn’t Go Anyway)
News and notes from around the interweb: Sketches of the new United terminal and club at LAX An angry badger put the Radisson Blu Stockholm on lockdown (HT: Alan H.) Amex has a website showing how much points are worth for a variety of their redemption options. The points are still worth the most transferring to airline miles, of course. Richard Branson is calling for a boycott of the Maldives. A cynic might point out that British Airways flies there and Virgin Atlantic doesn’t. No word on whether Virgin Atlantic will stop flying to Lagos, Nigeria. (See: should you travel to countries with awful human rights records? What do you think? The most expensive Hawaiian resort of the 1960s (HT: Alan H.)
How to Get American Airlines Lounge Membership for Just $100/Year
Back in December I wrote how to get American Admirals Club access free for one year. That strategy still works. Here’s how to get American club access for a net cost of $100, plus get a whole lot of additional benefits as well. (Admirals Club membership normally costs $400 – $500.) Here’s American’s new airport lounge strategy What makes a domestic airline lounge special? Citibank and American Airlines promote that the Citi Executive / AAdvantage Card is the only credit card offering American Airlines lounge access, but that’s not accurate. The Citi Prestige card does as well. The card normally comes with a $450 annual fee but Efficient Asian Man writes that he had no problem getting the $350 annual fee offer meant for Citi Gold accountholders (Citibank customers with significant financial relationships) that also…
How Starwood Determines How Many Points You’ll Pay for Your Award
LIH Prem asks about how a hotel’s room rate affects the number of points you have to pay to redeem for it in the Starwood Preferred Guest system. Understand that each hotel program is different, and Marriott for instance reimburses hotels an amount that depends on the number of room nights redeemed at the property versus being strictly based on the hotel’s room rates. Starwood – like Hyatt – assigns hotels to categories based on the hotel’s rate since it’s the rate that determines how much the program has to pay to the hotel for your reward night, and also how much the program charges you in points for that night. However if the hotel is full it gets more revenue. That’s how they get to ‘no capacity controls’. No capacity controls (often mistakenly referred…
Are Credit Cards About to Be Killed Off in Europe?
Doctor of Credit writes that EU lawmakers agreed to impose limits on EU debit and credit card interchange fees of 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. The Effect of Debit Card Fee Limits in the U.S. Debit interchange is already limited in the US by the Durbin Amendment to Dodd Frank (which led, more or less, to the end of rewards debit cards though I’m grateful that my Suntrust Delta debit card is grandfathered – for now). Of course it wasn’t just the end of rewards debit cards that happened as a result of the Durbin Amendment. Banks no longer earn much off of debit cards, which means that the average checking account customer is no longer profitable, there has to be another non-checking relationship there. So it becomes more difficult to get free or fee-waived checking…
The World’s Cheapest Award Tickets – Book By Monday!
oneworld frequent flyer program airberlin topbonus offers discounted economy award redemptions starting at just 1500 points. Over 600 routes are on sale, book by March 16 for travel through June. These aren’t expensive routes to buy but you can get these flights just for the taxes more or less since you receive 500 miles just for joining the program, and I regularly write about small free mileage offers in the program.
