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.
Spirit’s rejection was a gift to JetBlue which was already offering to overpay for Spirit. The “winner’s curse” was in effect, Since the market knows what Spirit is worth, in order to ‘win’ JetBlue was having to overpay. And indeed, Spirit is worth less to JetBlue than it is to Frontier.
JetBlue’s revised offer, unfortunately for their shareholders, was the same amount of money while extracting less value from the deal.
With just six seats, first class will be arranged in two rows of 3 seats (1-1-1). The suite will feature a separate seat and bed (as we’ve seen from Etihad and Singapore on the Airbus A380, and Lufthansa had at one point on its Boeing 747s). With an aisle between seats there’s no divider to bring down to share space with a traveling partner, however.
The new Qantas first class seat will feature a 32 inch HD screen, a wardrobe to store clothes after you’ve changed into pajamas and a mirror on the door. The seat will be controlled via iPad, and most innovative will be individual temperature and humidity controls.
Spirit Airlines announced that their board has unanimously rejected JetBlue’s offer to pay more for the airline than Frontier, with whom the ultra low cost carrier had entered into a sale agreement.
JetBlue’s offer involved paying more but undermining Spirit’s low cost advantage and walking away from their more profitable business model. Instead JetBlue wanted Spirit for its planes, pilots, gates and slots.
The truth is that other flight attendants are compensated based on flight length, and that’s meant to cover work done during boarding. And this how how union contracts have been designed – it’s what flight attendant representatives wanted. But there’s another element that most flight attendants don’t realize, and it’s how their own union is sticking it to them.
A Holiday Inn Express in Durango, Colorado charges a mandatory $5 fee that they describe as a “Colorado Green Energy Fee.”
By adding the state’s name to the fee, they make it sound as though it is imposed and required by the State of Colorado. They even go on to describe it as contributing to some sort of statewide environmental fund.
Hertz has become known for broken systems that don’t track their cars properly. It seems that just because a vehicle is returned, and gets re-rented, that doesn’t mean Hertz knows it ever came back. And though they claim otherwise, they seem to have a hair trigger for reporting cars stolen (or at least threatening customers that they will).
The rental giant argues that this is rare (a small percentage of total rentals) and a thing of the past (they’ve made process improvements). But it seems to keep happening. And though it may represent a small portion of transactions, readers of this blog keep reporting that it happens to them.
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.
Qantas is poised to announce its largest aircraft order ever, including the ultra long range Airbus A350-1000 which will fly non-stop to both London and New York. The planes will be outfit with four classes of service, including new seats. That means first class will survive. And Qantas will have one of the most generous economy products in the world.
Delta’s decision to pay flight attendants for the time boarding aircraft sent shockwaves through the industry. Traditionally flight attendant union-bargained contracts pay flight attendants a higher wage for the flight itself, and don’t calculate time spent boarding. Thus, many flight attendants feel they ‘don’t get paid’ for that time.
I’ve heard from cabin crew at several airlines envious of their counterparts at Delta, who are seeing this new pay on top of raises that started right before the pandemic, on top of special profit sharing bonuses announced earlier this year, and on top of raises that go into effect May 1.
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 »
