Amex Platinum customers who don’t focus their travel on Delta actually seem to come out ahead, even as their unlimited benefit (which they weren’t making full use of) gets scaled back.
For Delta loyalists with an Amex Platinum, well, that’s another story entirely.
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.
At the Morgan Stanley 11th Annual Laguna Conference, Delta was asked about changes to the airline’s loyalty program.
So this is pretty interesting, a new feature from Point.me lets you see what awards other people are finding. Great inspiration for your own mileage redemptions!
Delta says that nearly 1% of GDP is currently being charged to their Amex cards, why would they risk this? A lot of Delta cards are going to be cancelled since they no longer have unlimited or any access to Sky Clubs, and since the thresholds for earning status are so high.
There will be some people who double down on their Delta Amex cards, but at the end of the status chase if they can put hundreds of thousands of dollars of spend on those cards, they will have… Delta SkyMiles instead of more valuable rewards currencies they could have earned. The opportunity cost is high!
Southwest is the largest airline at the airport. They were allocated 44 daily departures for 2023, down from 57 flights in 2022. Basically the airport guesses how full flights will be, and applies that percentage to back into the current 11.8 million allowable passengers. And that determines how many flights they’ll permit.
Apparently they’ve been filling too many seats, because Southwest Airlines let employees know that they have a problem to manage in Orange County.
Spirit Airlines lost its relentless focus on costs, but Frontier Airlines still has it. Frontier is the U.S. Franke airline now and it’s headed by Spirit’s former marketing chief, Barry Biffle. Flight attendant training is done at a truck stop in Wyoming because it’s cheap.
United’s CEO Scott Kirby says airlines are overstaffed by 10%. Biffle will actually do something about it.
Ultimately this is a great tool, that’s normally premium priced, but available free at no cost through the Bilt app – a way to help make the most of Bilt points or any points, the way that they’ve done with airlines and point.me.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby warned about proposed Biden administration passenger delay compensation rules, “I do not want a pilot, I do not want a mechanic, thinking about the extra cost of delay when they’re thinking about a decision.”
Leave it to Delta to stick it to their best customers’ stored value in this transition.
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 »
