Delta’s Big Move in Austin: Questionable New Flights as American Airlines Cedes Ground

keep austin weird
Dec 15 2023

While American shed highly unprofitable flying, they had been using pretty much all available windows for swing gates, gates that could be used for flying by any carrier. And that blocked others from significant expansion.

With their recent moves opening up the field I speculated that could mean Delta making good on its promise to create a focus city in Austin. They’ve been willing to stick by unprofitable flying like Seattle, buoyed by strong performance of their interior hubs and their lucrative American Express deal, making a bet on long-term performance.

Continue Reading »

Bilt Adds Avianca LifeMiles As Transfer Partner

aviancaplane
Dec 15 2023

Avianca LifeMiles is a popular Star Alliance frequent flyer program for U.S. members because they sell miles inexpensively on a regular basis, and because you can transfer points into their program from several different credit card currencies.

They have generally reasonable redemption pricing with no fuel surcharges, though getting customer service when things go wrong can be challenging at times.

Continue Reading »

When Everyone’s A Suspect: The Paradox Of Two Million People On U.S. Terror Watchlists

airport security
Dec 14 2023

TSA has often failed to catch over 90% of contraband going through checkpoints, there have been tens of thousands of misconduct complaints against the agency’s staff, and yet we haven’t seen repeats in the U.S. of 9/11 largely because there aren’t as many threats as we think, they’re harder to carry out than we imagine, and because we’ve reinforced cockpit doors and passengers would no longer sit docilely by as an attack was carried out.

Continue Reading »