Etihad Finally Makes Money – By Not Flying Much

by Gary Leff

people boarding from tarmac
Jul 28 2022

Etihad Airways has finally become profitable, disclosing $690 million in adjusted earnings and $296 million in operating profit during the first half of 2022 on operating revenue of $2.29 billion. The state-owned carrier did not disclose net profit.

Despite only limited information, it’s still clearly a huge swing for an airline that lost $2 billion in 2016, and $1.5 billion in 2017 pursuing a strategy of buying stakes in nearly every dumpster fire airline they could get their hands on (but still refusing to take a stake in South African Airways, which even for Etihad at the time was a step too far).

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Senate Bill Would Kill Credit Card Rewards By Limiting Merchant Swipe Fees

by Gary Leff

credit card reader
Jul 28 2022

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) are expected to introduce a bill to limit credit card interchange fees. If enacted it would be a huge win for merchants, who love taking credit cards – since it means higher sales volumes at a lower cost than accepting cash – but would prefer not to pay for the privileges.

This is usually couched, by lobbyists for big retailers, as benefiting consumers. However prices haven’t fallen anywhere that interchange has been limited, such as in Europe and Australia. But it would effectively end credit card rewards as we know it.

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Southwest Flight Credits No Longer Expire – Ever (But Expiration Says “2040” For Now)

by Gary Leff

Jul 28 2022

In a move that should make it even easier to buy Southwest Airlines tickets they’ve announced that their credits will never expire. All Southwest Airlines flight credits active starting today – however you’ll see a ‘placeholder’ expiration date of December 31, 2040 with tech updates later in the year eliminating the expiration date and process entirely.

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Frontier Loses Its Bid To Acquire Spirit, Looks Like Spirit-JetBlue Is Next

by Gary Leff

Jul 27 2022

JetBlue wants to buy Spirit for parts – gates, slots (though they’d divest many of those), pilots and planes. And they’re willing to pay $400 million for the chance to get the deal to close in the face of government opposition.

Meanwhile the most likely way to get regulatory approval is to trade the American Airlines joint venture, which the federal government is also opposing. If they can make that deal quickly, they can presumably have Spirit.

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Scary: Delta Flight To Ghana Risked Running Out Of Fuel Over The Atlantic, Returned To New York

by Gary Leff

Jul 27 2022

On Monday July 25 Delta flight 9923 from New York JFK to Accra, Ghana headed out over the Atlantic and then diverted back due to fuel issues. The flight had already been delayed from the day before, reportedly due to a sick pilot, and was operated as a special extra section.

However the second attempt at the flight took a turn for the worse. A couple of hours out over the Atlantic the captain announced that the Boeing 767 had a fuel issue, and that they would have to return to New York. Emergency crews met the plane on arrival.

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Woman Turned Away From American Airlines First Class Lavatory Claims Discrimination

by Gary Leff

lavatory
Jul 27 2022

After flying between Dallas – Fort Worth and Detroit, a woman took to twitter to share her experience trying to use the first class lavatory as a passenger sitting at the front of the coach cabin. She’s not a frequent flyer, asked a flight attendant where the restroom was, and she says she was told to use the restroom in front.

However when she got there she felt scolded and was sent back to use the coach lavatory. And while she’s black, she reports that white passengers were allowed to use that lavatory without a scolding.

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The 10 Best Cities In The World

by Gary Leff

Jul 26 2022

The Economist produces a research report on the top 10 most livable cities in the world. How many have you been to? How do your favorites fare? What Are The World’s Most Livable Cities? This year’s top 10 most livable cities are ranked as: Vienna Copenhagen Zurich + Calgary Vancouver Geneva Frankfurt Toronto Amsterdam Osaka and Melbourne Can this list make any sense at all? Many of these cities are awesome, I'm sure, but these lists tend to be biased towards cities that are cold, expensive, or boring, which suggests that the listmakers have a shitty definition of "livability". — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 25, 2022 Vienna is incredible, but I wouldn’t want to live there though I’ve been attached to it since Richard Linklater’s 1995 classic Before Sunrise where young American Ethan Hawke is…

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