While there was much talk in 2021 about AAdvantage devaluations, they committed not to change their award chart as they rolled out Loyalty Points as a new way to earn elite status. Now the deferred chickens may come home to roost – risking the value of the AAdvantage program, the revenue streams for co-brand partners, and the quality of AAdvantage-backed debt.
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.
Air traffic control in Manila lost power on New Years’ and all flights were halted. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded as flights were cancelled and diverted. Inbound aircraft couldn’t fly to Manila – for instance a Qantas flight from Sydney took a six hour flight to nowhere, turning around nearly halfway through its eight hour journey.
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.
The saga of one United Airlines customer’s lost bag, tracked down using an AirTag, is the story of one of these third party delivery services. The airline turns it over, and basically loses track of the bag, assuming that their contractor will do their job and make the delivery.
One City of Chicago employee had two runway incursions in a single day and thanks to union rules wasn’t even fired. Indeed, not a single one of 5 city workers who drove vehicles improperly on O’Hare runways were terminated.
Southwest Airlines experienced an operational crisis greater than any in its history – and this is an airline that managed to operate a four aircraft schedule with just three planes, and developed the 10 minute turn – in order to survive.
It didn’t just cancel flights broadly across its system for the holidays, it kept doing it day after day, unable to recover effectively. That ruined the holidays for more and more people, compounding the issues – and hits to their business.
A family of three was traveling Delta from Oakland to Salt Lake City on an overbooked flight. The gate agent offered them $8,000 apiece – $24,000 in total – to take another flight. They felt like they’d won the lottery. But then Delta reneged on the offer. The family didn’t get the vouchers, and they didn’t get to take the flight.
Now that the year has reset, so have a number of credit card benefits, and elite ‘tasks.’ Here’s what I went through first thing in the morning on New Years Day.
People are no longer afraid of Covid-19, in the limit. Travel overall has boomed. Restaurants filled up. But office towers did not.
Here’s one chart showing work from home has become permanent. And that means managed business travel will be permanently impaired.
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 »
