Southwest was born out of Dallas’ Love Field. They built their identity around it. Their stock ticket symbol is LUV. Their flight attendants, in the 70s, wore hot pants and they introduced automated ticketing machines called “Quickies.” But Dallas’ close-in airport was hobbled. The local area built up Dallas-Fort Worth and in exchange all of the incumbent airlines agreed to serve only DFW. When Southwest wanted to start service from Love, they sued. They wanted all airlines barred from the airport, not just those who had entered into an agreement as part of the DFW construction. Future Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher started as the airline’s attorney. Their President was Lamar Muse, who was ultimately kicked out of the company by the board and with his son started Muse Air (colloquially dubbed “Revenge Air”). Southwest eventually…
American Delays Implementation of its Ban on Interlining Baggage on Separate Tickets
American is eliminating the ability to through check baggage between different airlines outside of oneworld on separate tickets. They informed travel agents of the change going into effect October 1 just last week. And already the implementation date has been put off… to October 15. Two more weeks. Maybe they could use the time to inform customers of the change. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Thoughts on the Chicago Air Traffic Control Disaster
I was fortunate not to be flying through or to Chicago over the past several days. And I’m certainly not an expert on the situation. So I’m not going to try to speculate on the man who did it, who is presumed to have been trying to commit suicide and in the process brought down a chunk of the nation’s air traffic control system. And I’m not an expert in the technology or processes involved. The way this all unfolded was surprising, and I do have some non-expert thoughts. Whatever situation that led to the presumed suicide attempt which touched this off is, no doubt, tragic. And yet I am grateful that the person attempting suicide wasn’t a Muslim. I can only imagine how that one detail would have changed the national response to things,…
Hilton HHonors Wants You to Vote for their Next Promotion – and What Charity They Should Support
Hilton HHonors has narrowed their next promotion down to two options, and members can vote for which one they want to see. The one that gets the most votes will run November 1 through January 31. The choices are either: Double HHonors Points, beginning with second stay, or 1,000 Bonus Points for every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night stay Both promotions are extremely weak. Hotels are doing extremely well, and programs don’t need to do a lot to put heads in beds currently. But this promotion runs during the period of the year that tends to be the weakest, so I would have expected something a little bit stronger… at least when they’re looking for member involvement. Double points is better than not having double points, but it doesn’t even start with your…
Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Tips and Competing Theories of the Amex Financial Review
News and notes from around the interweb: The biggest gathering of frequent flyers ever will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City near National airport in the Washington DC area. Here’s a new review of the property. Anthony Bourdain’s travel advice I’ve got family in South Florida and have stayed at many hotels there many times (such as the Hyatt Place Delray Beach, Renaissance Boca Raton, Marriott Boca Raton, Westin Diplomat, Hyatt Regency Coral Gables and Hyatt Pier 66). But I’ve never stayed at Hilton’s classic Boca Raton Resort & Club. JohnnyJet reviews it. Marathon Man’s conspiracy theory about American Express financial reviews. And the truth. Air Berlin cancelled a $5 billion aircraft order from Boeing. (Wall Street Journal article so if the link doesn’t work for you just Google “Air Berlin Cancels Purchase…
Lufthansa Long Haul About to Go Low Cost: Big Mistake?
Lufthansa is considering a new low cost long haul subsidiary that may fly Airbus A330s. The yet-to-be-named subsidiary, which is part of the Wings concept, would operate up to seven Airbus A330-300s. It will begin operations in fall 2015 with three aircraft in Munich, Düsseldorf or Cologne to take advantage of above-average growth in the leisure travel segment and round out the Lufthansa Group of airlines’ current route networks. ..Lufthansa is building on a new strategy to expand its LCC platform, Wings, which could include Germanwings, Eurowings and the new long-haul LCC returning to A320 operations to focus on direct point-to-point flights within Europe. I’ve never seen a wholly owned low cost carrier subsidiary that has actually worked, outside of Asia Pacific. (Think TED, MetroJet, Continental Lite.) In fairness, Jetstar (Qantas), FlyDubai (Government of Dubai…
Airport Security: Our New Strategy is Just to Ask People If They’re a Terrorist
I’ve been in the midst of my busiest time of year at work over the past several weeks, and several stories passed without comment. One was the Sun Country flight departing New York JFK that was swarmed by law enforcement because a piece of luggage had the insignia ISIS on it. A federal source tells WNBC of New York that a passenger on the plane had a duffel traveling bag that had the word ‘ISIS’ on it, which triggered a security alert. The source says the plane and luggage were swept, but nothing was found. The New York Port Authority later determined the concerns stemmed from the logo of a travel agency appearing similar to ISIS insignia. The travel agency had given out bags with the logo to a travel group on the plane. It…
Does the AAA Visa Trump Chase Sapphire Preferred?
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Reader S. makes the case for the AAA Visa. Not sure if you used to (or still do) have the AAA Visa Card? I got it years ago when it was MBNA & now it’s Bank of America. I used to use it long ago to buy AAA travelers checks & get points that could be used towards a $50 gift certificate at AAA & then converted those…
Tickets Now Available to the Biggest Frequent Flyer Gathering in History
In just 11 weeks you’ll be able to spend the weekend with more frequent flyer mileage enthusiasts than have ever gathered together in one place. The biggest Frequent Traveler University ever. Get your tickets to Frequent Traveler University here and to the related Frequent Traveler University Advanced here. I believe that last April’s Frequent Traveler University in Northern Virginia — with well over 600 attendees — was the biggest gathering ever of frequent flyers to date. Since then we’ve done smaller FTU events, a little over 400 is more manageable. And we’ve done focused “Frequent Traveler University Advanced” events with a little over 100 people. These are all great. But there’s something to be said for the opportunities that a mega event provides. All of these events have sold out. Frequent Traveler University San Diego…
Is New York About to Get a 7-Star Hotel?
Via Alan H. New York will get a new hotel on West 57th that is supposed to tower over the luxury offered by anything else. Manhattan’s posh West 57th Street, commonly known as “Billionaires Row,” is slated to become the address for New York’s first seven-star hotel. The yet to be flagged luxe hotel is being developed by Vornado Realty Trust and Le Frak Organization, who individually or collectively snagged the three small buildings…now under demolition. I’m not sure how a hotel that has not yet been built, that hasn’t been flagged with a brand, and for which there are no public renderings can be promoted as being “seven star” even though there’s not really any such external standard for such a rating in existence. But it’s a moniker that sounds impressive, I guess, so…
