Airlines are at risk of killing their golden goose. Miles motivate customers, but customers need to be able to use their miles. Airlines have gotten better at selling their seats for cash, frequent flyer programs want to retain their margins, and so members get squeezed.
As a result, airline executives call for ‘revisiting the model’ of frequent flyer programs – the model that made them successful, multi-billion dollar enterprises.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom says the most important thing for an airline is an on-time departure (also, ‘not spending a dollar more than they need to’ which presumably includes on cleaning planes). Personally I actually prioritize not sitting in filth for my flight even ahead of an exact on-time departure. Unfortunately there’s really not any U.S. airline I can choose that shares this value. And ideally they’d be in the business of doing both! United is supposed to be going for premium, but. @united Another filthy Polaris experience… And no wipes on board. pic.twitter.com/Zk5RLwzYLR — Joe (@joebarti) February 9, 2025 Southwest is ostensibly pivoting to premium, selling seat assignments and extra legroom seats. Maybe start with this. @SouthwestAir great job cleaning the seats between flights this is disgusting pic.twitter.com/1yd1Lhdd9P — Eric VanDongen (@ervandongen) February…
Hyatt will acquire all outstanding shares of Playa Hotels at $13.50 per share, valuing it at $2.6 billion inclusive of $900 million debt. That’s a 40% premium over the company’s market cap prior to revealing talks over the sale. Hyatt plans to sell the physical hotel properties, and they anticipate this will generate approximately $2 billion by the end of 2027. The non-Hyatt branded properties seem likely to convert to Hyatt brands over time.
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.
Delta Air Lines became only the fourth-most on-time airline in the U.S. last month, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. Their January statistics are out:
At Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in northeastern China, a familiar scene unfolds every time an Air Koryo flight readies for Pyongyang. As soon as passengers clear passport control, there’s a dash towards the KFC in the departures hall. The fast food outpost gets cleaned out of hamburgers and chicken burgers. They’re bringing the burgers back home with them.
United is leaving American behind in the dust at Chicago O’Hare, and competed head-to-head with Delta in the ‘premium lane’ of U.S. air travel across the country. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re investing more in their product, investing in their technology, and consistently surprising customers with inflight milestone recognition. Well, it seems they have something new up their sleeve.
Five Air India flight attendants were jailed at Zurich airport after arriving without the mandatory Crew Member Certificate.
Over the past week, two separate Air India flights brought in crewmembers – and across the two, five flight flight attendants were affected – four arrived without any CMC while the fifth carried an invalid version of the document, issued under Air Vistara
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.
There’s a great video of the owner of the Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale, Ben Mallah, complaining about what Marriott required him to spend on his Sheraton property. He talks about how Marriott was telling him to bring back food and beverage after the pandemic and he threatened to pull the Sheraton flag over it. It’s a clear articulation of how owners believe Marriott will cave to them, and that they don’t need to deliver to customers.
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 »
