The ‘number of members’ is really just ‘records in the database.’ The more rooms you have, the more people are booking them, the more sign up for a program usually just to avoid paying extra. A large marketing file is valuable! But it says little about the value of the program. Far more interesting is which programs outperform the size of the chain.
Here’s a dog standing up on the furniture at the American Airlines Admirals Club in Los Angeles. Since customer provisions there lag what United and Delta offer at their clubs, this dog is presumably eating and drinking there just as well as the passengers.
Some of the routes Delta has been running have been ‘intra-Texas’ flights that seemingly make no sense, other than they are short flights using cheap outsourced planes. Cities include Harlingen, McAllen, and Midland, Texas. Harlingen and McAllen seemed like super-strange choices at first, since they’re just 45 minutes apart from each other by car.
Will they be bankrupted by this American Airlines mistake? What’s it going to do to their credit score (that’s some hefty utilization!)? Will American Express close down their account? Will other card issuers?
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson was the guest on the Airlines Confidential podcast this week. She shared the story of getting involved in union activism after 9/11 and said that “the biggest complaint I heard from flight attendants was ‘I didn’t feel seen, I didn’t feel respected’” and said that people didn’t realize that there were unions then. By her own standard then, she’s failed her members.
An American Airlines customer bought a $1,000 ticket and later refunded it. American returned $100,000 instead.
An investigations has found that Venezuelan state gold was laundered by blending its proceeds with COVID-19 bailout funds to Spanish long haul carrier Plus Ultra Airlines. And Venezuela’s government may have helped the airline qualify for the pandemic bailout from Spain in the first place.
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.
Maybe it’s unlikely that you’ll need Air Tahiti Nui elite status? But this one is free, takes very little effort (just fill out their form) and you never know when having elite status with an airline other than the one you fly most could come in handy for status matching to another carrier. Can’t hurt!
In 2012 I wrote that wifi would eventually be free, once there was enough bandwidth on board so that one customer’s use didn’t trade off with another’s. That’s largely happened. JetBlue and Delta offer free wifi. United is moving to Starlink (enough bandwidth) which will be free. And it looks like American is being pushed there – dragged kicking and screaming, perhaps, but they have to get there.
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 »
