We’ve all heard the story by now about Cho Hyun-ah, Korean Air’s Vice President for inflight services and daughter of the airline’s Chairman, who flew New York JFK – Seoul at the beginning of December and had an altercation with a crew member. She was flying first class, and a flight attendant presented her with an unopened bag of macadamia nuts, rather than asking her if she wanted the nuts and then serving them on a plate per proper procedure. Ms. Cho scolded the flight attendant, and dressed down the purser. She apparently hit the flight attendant, as this assault is the only charge she faces that she pled guilty to. She ordered the purser off the plane. The aircraft, which was apparently 56 feet toward the runway at this point, returned to the gate…
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Upgrades Are Getting Harder and Harder… But You Can Still Get Them If You Know How.
The Wall Street Journal covers the disappearing perk of the road warrior: upgrades are getting harder and more expensive. There are (5) reasons this is true. Airlines are selling discounted first class fares far more than they ever used to. Airlines are making aggressive buy up offers to first class. The economy is doing better. Airlines aren’t expanding. As air travel grows, and the number of seats stays constant, there’s more demand for a dwindling number of available upgrade seats. Lots of people confirm their upgrades in advance – in part because of all the miles that are out there, and in part because of how tough the competition is. It used to be that 100,000 mile flyers found themselves in first class nearly all the time, and even mid-tier frequent flyers found themselves in…
Mileage Programs Adding New, Complex Rules That Make Your Head Spin. The Program Execs Themselves Don’t Even Understand Them…
On the whole I have personally liked how complicated frequent flyer programs are. The more complicated they are, the greater the opportunities for identifying unintended value opportunity and the greater opportunities for arbitrage. They’ve allowed the creation of businesses like this one to help guide folks through the morass. Programs are so complicated the the people running them don’t understand them. Pre-interviewing an executive from a major frequent flyer program for a panel I moderated last year, the individual shared that they’re in meetings frequently talking about how to build something or change something and everyone in the room will come to a stopping place and someone will have to take an action item to look up how a feature of the program actually works, what the rules are. The group in the room, managing…
Alaska Waives Checked Bag Fees for Credit Card Holders… for Three Months Only
Alaska Airlines gave free checked bags to everyone with a Mileage Plan number in their reservation in January. Now they’re running a limited-time offer of a free checked bag for their co-brand credit card holders from February 1 through April 30. Checked bag fees are one of the pain points of flying that irritate passengers most. And Alaska is even good with checked bags, having offered a baggage delivery guarantee since 2009. They currently offer 2500 miles or a $25 discount on a future flight if they don’t deliver checked bags within 20 minutes. (Pro-tip: the miles are worth more.) Alaska Mileage Plan miles are some of the most valuable of any airline. Alaska believes that continuing to award miles based on distance flown rather than revenue will be a competitive advantage for them. I…
Should American AAdvantage Members Be Worried Now That Joint Venture Partner British Airways Has Devalued.. Big Time?
With British Airways gutting their program — eliminating the principle that one mile flown earns one mile, reducing mid-tier elite mileage bonuses, and substantially increasing the cost of premium cabin award travel — I’ve had several questions about what this means for American AAdvantage frequent flyers since the two airlines aren’t just alliance members but are actually revenue-sharing joint venture partners across the Atlantic. When American and British Airways introduced the transatlantic joint venture in 2010 there was some frequent flyer program alignment. That is when American introduced US – London awards on British Airways (those has previously not been permitted with AAdvantage miles, so you had to fly from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean) but fuel surcharges started to apply on all BA awards. Previously American didn’t add fuel surcharges to those British Airways…
The False Narrative of Rewarding Expensive Fare Customers
In offering commentary on the major changes coming to the British Airways program, Lucky concludes, This change is pretty in line with what I expect from airlines in 2015: British Airways is being less rewarding to those on lower fares British Airways is being more rewarding to those on expensive fares “British Airways is being more rewarding to those on expensive fares” is what they want the narrative to be But I don’t think it’s quite accurate: Discount business fares earn less starting April 28 Silver elites earn less Premium cabin redemptions cost more So it’s not at all obvious that expensive fares come out ahead. For many it’ll be a wash (flexible business and first class fares earn more, but then redeeming for the same costs more) and for some (discount business fares, and…
A New Mysterious Credit Card for Wealthy Investors, Cash for Opening a Checking Account, and How to Help Others Improve Their Credit Score
News and notes from around the interweb: $150 bonus for opening a SunTrust checking account in-branch. Merrill Lynch has a mysterious new American Express card for wealthy clients Flights from UAE to Baghdad Suspended After FlyDubai Aircraft Hit By Gunfire Apparently this is still a thing, though I wouldn’t do it: selling your credit card authorized user slots to help others’ boost their credit scores. A prepaid debit card that doesn’t seem to work well for just generating spend, but does seem to offer free Chipotle. Earn AAdvantage miles for hotel reviews. Not worth my time at 70 miles per, but some will do this. Marriott buying Canada’s Delta Hotels. Alaska extending free streaming inflight entertainment for two more months, starting to rent Microsoft tablets February 1. You can join the 40,000+ people who see…
How to Survive Flying Through This Week’s Historic Storms and Other Weather Events
I went on television earlier today to talk weather and navigating flight delays and cancellations. I’d sum up my advice as, expect the unexpected, be proactive, and be nice. There are five basic things to do to travel well through flight delays and cancellations
Inside Flyer Ceases Publishing After 29 Years: Randy Petersen Retires
Inside Flyer magazine’s blog offers the story of Randy Petersen’s retirement from magazine publishing. The magazine launched a number of other activities that continue and thrive today. During our time, InsideFlyer accomplished something that no other publication of its kind has–we left a legacy. Among the things InsideFlyer created, funded and willed to be relevant to the frequent flyer included the Freddie Awards, FlyerTalk and BoardingArea, along with its grandchild Milepoint.com. On their consumer advocate legacy, InsideFlyer beat back the introduction of a Saturday night stayover requirement on flight awards from United Mileage Plus in 2000, we led the rollback of the US Airways Dividend Miles elite change to drop status bonus miles, we provided the major funding and support for SaveSkyMiles which beat back an effort by Delta to offer fewer miles flown on…
Taking Advantage of a Legal Loophole: You Can Avoid Paying Fuel Surcharges on Award Tickets If You Know Where to Start and End the Trip
Fuel surcharges are the bane of many frequent flyers, junk fees adding hundreds or even a thousand dollars onto award tickets by many frequent flyer programs around the world. Airlines like fuel surcharges because: Changing the fuel surcharge in a market can raise or lower every ticket price in that market, no need to re-file every single fare. They allow an airline to raise price even with many fixed-fare agreements. And, of course, because they can be charged to frequent flyers trying to redeem a captive points currency. US frequent flyers — who don’t participate in mileage programs based outside the US — don’t have to deal with fuel surcharges very much. American adds them to awards on British Airways (and to a very modest extent on Iberia) Alaska adds them to awards on British…
