Frequent flyer statistics: American AAdvantage is the largest frequent flyer program in the world — including US Airways members, they boast more than 100 million members. At that scale, nearly all analysis can be done by the numbers, and fortunately American is more revealing about their numbers than most other carriers. Airline filings with the SEC can be extremely enlightening if you’re willing to work through them. American’s filings provide quite a bit of detail about the number of members, how many miles were issued in a year, and how many miles remain outstanding (unexpired and unredeemed). I had a look at annual 10-K filings from the beginning of 2008 through the beginning of 2014. Here’s what they show:
Get Instant Free Status from Avis and National Car Rental
Last month I wrote about how you can get free and easy rental car elite status if you have a World Elite MasterCard. Plenty of readers have one of these, for instance if you signed up for the Citi American Airlines Executive Card when it was offering 100,000 bonus miles. johnf pointed out though that there are links available with both Avis and National that let you sign up and receive elite status instantly. Avis has their MasterCard World Elite signup offer online. This gives you instant Avis First status. You’ll have to enter a MasterCard as your credit card of choice. National Car Rental makes their signup link available as well. Which means most should be able to use it. Years ago you used to be able to sign up for Avis Presidents Club…
Is the Airbus A380 a Failure?
The Airbus A380 is cool. Efficient Asian Man says “the 747 is iconic while the A380 looks like a retarded goldfish” but the whale is huge and is amazing to fly. I still think it feels bizarre at takeoff, flying on the upper deck. It feels underpowered as it glides into the sky, it’s too smooth. Boarding the entire upper deck from separate jet bridges, you almost don’t realize that there’s a full length plane beneath you. You can pack it in densely or add amenities like Emirates has done with the shower, or Etihad is doing with their 3-bedroom residence (which isn’t as insane as it sounds, since it leverages what is mostly otherwise dead space). A New York Times story this weekend contends, though, that overall the A380 is a failure. There are…
Iranian Domestic Flight Crashed into a Residential Neighborhood on Takeoff This Morning
An Iranian passenger jet operated by Sepahan Air crashed Sunday morning after takeoff in a residential area near Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. Thirty nine people were killed and nine onboard were injured. The plane apparently was an ‘IrAn-140’ — a twin-engine turboprop that’s a variant of an Antonov An-140 assembled in Iran. The flight was headed for the city of Tabas, about 580 miles southeast of Tehran. The plane suffered an engine failure and its tail struck an electricity tower before impact. My thoughts are with the families of passengers, crew, and anyone injured on the ground — as well as with Sepahan Air. Much information that comes out in the immediate aftermath of a disaster turns out to be wrong, so some of these details may change. It’s too early to identify a cause, although…
Here’s Why You Should Consider Connecting In Dublin On Your Next Europe Trip
About a week ago, the UK’s Telegraph ran a piece, Is Dublin Airport Eating Heathrow’s Lunch? The answer is clearly no, because London remains an important world business destination, even if it’s an abominable connecting airport. And Heathrow remains terribly even transferring British Airways-to-British Airways… last year my Dusseldorf – London – San Francisco connection involved two buses and a train as I arrived at a terminal 1 bus gate, then had to bus to terminal 5, and we departed out of a T5 satellite concourse. If you’re going to connect in Europe, Dublin is a really good place to do it. If you are starting or ending your trip anywhere west or north of London, it’s a no brainer not to fly all the way to London (or beyond) and backtrack. Plus flying Westbound…
Here’s How to Fix the TSA, In Song
The TSA is offering a $15,000 prize for the best idea that improves the security screening process. TSA is looking for the Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model to apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet queue design and configuration needs of the dynamic security screening environment, Yeah, that makes sense. And that description may be part of the problem. Here’s the contest entry website. The TSA guarantees they will award a prize. A total of $15,000 is available, and could be awarded to one single entry. At a minimum there will be a $5000 first prize and there could be in theory (4) $2500 prizes (no prize under $2500 will be awarded). My good friends at ReasonTV released a video entry from Remy. He wins. (Shout outs for the prompt to K.K.,…
Free Upgrades, 50% Hotel Discount, Miles Purchase Savings, and Thousands of Bonus Miles: What You Need to Know Today!
News and notes from around the interweb: Earn up to 100,000 United miles flying between Chicago and Shanghai Finally! Someone agrees with me that
Your Credit Score May Go Up This Fall: What New Scoring Methods Mean for You
FICO credit scores are getting revised starting this Fall, with two big changes being made under pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which wants to see more credit extended. Unpaid medical bills will be less significant in calculating credit scores Past unpaid bills will no longer impact credit scores if they’ve been paid in full or settled. These are changes that will affect a large portion of the population. More than 63 million people have medical collections on their credit reports More than 106 million people have collections of some kind on their reports, and nearly 10% of those have been paid in full All told, the credit scores of 60 to 70 million people could rise with these changes that roll out in the fall.
Here’s Why US Airlines Charge for Lounge Membership
Yesterday tommy777 went on an epic rant about US airline lounges and American’s clubs in particular. There’s no question that US airline lounges do not compare to their Asian counterparts. I’d disagree that European lounges in general are superior. I’ve been to too many contract lounges, shared lounges, and even some airline operated lounges in Europe that are awful. I’ll never forget the now-closed Boticelli lounge (Alitalia) in Milan where they gave you shower shoes because the drains were clogged. They didn’t have hot water, either. Or enough seating. And there were lines 20+ deep to get a coffee. Many South American lounges are equally bad. Nonetheless, it’s 100% true that American has offered the least free food. I don’t mind paid food options when those options are good, unfortunately they vary a lot from…
The Airline That Hates Elites
Frontier is compressing down to one elite status tier in their frequent flyer program. Starting February 20, 2015, the EarlyReturns program will retire Ascent and Summit elite status and launch a brand new elite tier, Frontier Elite. Status is earned by flying 20,000 miles or 25 segments during the calendar year. Members get: Priority check-in, boarding, and security Advance seat assignments Complimentary carry on bag Extra legroom seating at checkin only The ability to redeem extra miles for better award inventory Standby and same-day confirmed fees waived Unaccompanied minor fees waived Phone booking fee waived Notice anything missing? No free checked bags for elites No more change fee waivers No more advance seat assignments for extra legroom seating Dedicated elite customer service Bonus flight miles Complimentary beverages Free name changes Guaranteed flight availability How would…
