Delta Air Lines CEO: How We’re Thinking About New SkyMiles Changes

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2023

CEO Ed Bastian reported that they are “getting good feedback” from customers and that they “had too many changes rolled out at the same time” and that’s why they needed to go back and “reassess” the planned rollout for new elite qualification levels.

He contends that the vitriol from SkyMiles members simply shows their “intense loyalty to Delta” and that “most everyone agrees” Delta needed to make changes because they have more premium customers than they have premium assets to offer.

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El Al Will Fly On The Sabbath, And U.S. Banks Will Pay For It?

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2023

El Al doesn’t fly on Shabbat, from sundown Friday evening until sundown Saturday evening, as a religious observance. However they will operate from both the New York and Bangkok this Saturday to assist in bringing reservists back to Israel as part of the country’s call up of 360,000 (4% of their population).

El Al will not be charging for these flights. Instead, the cost “will be borne by El Al and large US financial institutions” according to the airline.

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British Airways Diverts From Tel Aviv On Final Approach As Hamas Launched Rockets

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2023

British Airways flight 165 from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv turned around while on final approach on Wednesday, as Hamas launched a rocket attack at the city. The carrier had been operating a single daytime flight, allowing crew to immediately return to London, however has now decided to suspend operations to Israel.

Passengers on the flight took a 9 hour 47 minute flight to nowhere, and options to fly into the country are increasingly limited.

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Over 20,000 People Have Complained To The FAA About Attempts To Put JSX Out Of Business

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2023

The FAA is considering a rule to treat public charters the same way as large commercial airlines, rewriting rules going back 30 years. This would mean that co-pilots for carriers like JSX and the proposed SkyWest Charter could only employ co-pilots with 1,500 hours of training (whether in a tethered hot air balloon or otherwise) and JSX wouldn’t be able to fly from private terminals.

JSX emailed all of their customers asking them to comment on the FAA’s proposed rulemaking. Over 20,000 people filed comments to oppose these changes. Does that matter?

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Emirates Keeps Devaluing Its Miles Because Dubai’s Rulers Don’t Prioritize Loyalty Programs

by Gary Leff

private airplane bar
Oct 11 2023

Emirates as a company hasn’t prioritized loyalty and so the head of loyalty optimizes within that framework. Revenue management won’t release award inventory to the program to any meaningful degree, so Skywards is stuck promoting using their miles as cash towards flights on the airline and cannot buy excess inventory to sell at a profitable discount through the frequency program.

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