Hilton’s premium co-brand is interesting because it straight up comes with Honors Diamond status, though I view Hilton Diamond as worth less than similar status at Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG (no guaranteed late check-out from Hilton or IHG, even, but at least IHG offers confirmed suites).
The premium card is also the only one where Hilton spend is more rewarding that putting it on an alternative card.
There are folks who will come out ahead – those who already have unlimited Priority Pass and will get the full $200 per year value out of the statement credits – but overall judging the pure value of the card I don’t think this is a net improvement. It’s still a good value product but I don’t see this refresh as an improvement.
They’re in a bit of a pickle because they don’t have the financial strength and performance to absorb higher labor costs, and may be tempted to squeeze elsewhere. But this constrains revenue growth potential, and makes for an even bigger problem. As a high cost airline they also need to be a high revenue airline, which means offering a better product not just a reliable domestic schedule.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, shared a photo of himself chairing a management meeting. Shirtless. While getting a massage.
On Wednesday morning, a Southwest Airlines passenger on a cross country flight departing from Oakland hadn’t finished her laundry and dried “her clothes by hanging them on the window shades.”
The airline responded to the customer who shared this on social media, saying “Orange you glad it wasn’t underwear?”
While neither American nor United targeted disaffected SkyMiles elite, who felt they were being fired as the airlines employees told complaining customers to stop being poor, CNBC’s Leslie Josephs asked during the question and answer period of the earnings call whether United has seen an uptick in status match requests.
After Delta’s evisceration of elite qualification rules for next year, announcing the end of earning status by miles and flights flown; moving entirely to dollars spent; and increasing the amount of spending required for status substantially, as well as severely restricting access by premium credit card customers to its lounges, Delta acknowledged that they had moved ‘too quickly’ by ‘pulling the band aid off all at once’ and promised to moderate their changes for the coming year.
Oakland’s airport took a mere five months to build. Now adding 16 gates could take decades, if it’s ever able to happen.
Today Southwest Airlines controls the vast majority of traffic at the airport that was dedicated by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and was the site of Amelia Earhart’s final trip departure. It hasn’t seen investment in fifteen years. And locals are going to use all of the levers of process to make sure it doesn’t see any, any time soon.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
During the United Airlines third quarter earnings call the carrier announced that they would not be making changes to their elite program. Normally the lack of changes aren’t noteworthy, but it’s been a big question from members since Delta has announced big changes and even in the face of backlash has merely suggested they rolled changes out too quickly not that the changes themselves were a mistake.
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 »
