There are two ways travel can spread the virus. Both are manageable at this point. Europe’s CDC has brand new recommendations for re-opening travel.
British Airways notified members of a change to its frequent flyer terms and conditions to limit the ability to sue.
Mandatory arbitration, though, is so 2018 and may wind up costing British Airways a lot more than lawsuits would have.
Chase has added more new temporary benefits to the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred Card products.
They’re letting you redeem points at full value towards restaurants, grocery stores, and home improvement stores. Sapphire Reserve travel credits will work at grocery stores and gas stations. And they’re reducing the Sapphire Reserve card’s annual fee temporarily as well.
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.
Last night I broke the news exclusively that American Airlines would shed at least 30% of management and support staff, and I outlined the two voluntary packages being offered to most employees and what the involuntary package would look like.
A couple of correspondents – a throwaway account on Twitter, an anonymous email – complained to me that the airline had to move up their notice to employees because I had the scoop. They weren’t going to inform staff of the layoffs last night.
American Airlines is about to inform management and support staff that they expect at least 30% to be let go, according to internal documents reviewed by View From The Wing. The airline wants some of these layoffs to be voluntary, and they’re taking both a carrot and stick approach.
One of the enticements being offered is 250,000 to 350,000 American AAdvantage miles.
Citibank’s no annual fee AAdvantage MileUp℠ card just launched this summer. Like United’s and Delta’s no annual fee offerings it will not include travel benefits like early boarding or free checked bags. However it will offer full mileage earning. And this one is uniquely good for a no annual fee product. In fact there are 3 main reasons to get this card.
Ultimately “ask[ing] the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security to come up with new protocols for security, boarding and other routines to minimize risk” will be health security theater, more designed to make people feel like the government is doing something to protect them than actually doing something to protect them, an airline marketing expense as it were.
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.
American Airlines is extending its change fee waiver for tickets purchased in June – but only for itineraries to travel by end of September.
American seems to be saying that the lull in travel, while to some extent long lasting, is likely to bounce back. That’s at least true for leisure travel, since business travel wouldn’t be booking past September anyway. At a minimum there’s some chance that they won’t need to offer flexibility indefinitely into the future, so they’d rather offer this a little bit at a time. That makes sense, from a certain point of view.
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 »
