American Airlines Introduces New Flagship Business Plus Instead Of First Class, What Does It Mean?

by Gary Leff

Jan 20 2022

Could this be the end of first class on international routes and premium cross country flights on American Airlines? Or the introduction of a really stepped up business class, or both?

Wednesday evening American was marketing cross country flights on its premium Airbus A321T aircraft as offering “Flagship Business” and “Flagship Business Plus,” the latter instead of first class,. Indeed, the column heading where ‘First’ used to be was replaced with ‘Premier’ at aa.com. And now the change has been rolled back.

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American Airlines And The Points Guy Are Suing Each Other

by Gary Leff

american plane
Jan 19 2022

American Airlines has been clamping down on websites that work with AAdvantage member data for their customers. They made Award Wallet stop tracking member accounts and they sent a cease and desist letter to Red Ventures, which owns The Points Guy, over its TPG app which – among other things – lets customers track their frequent flyer program balances.

American sought to stop the practice, and so Red Ventures first sued American Airlines seeking declaratory relief. And now American Airlines and its loyalty subsidiary have countersued in the Northern District of Texas.

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IHG Rewards Senior VP Loyalty Explains Big Program Changes Coming, Starting With New Elite Level

by Gary Leff

Jan 19 2022

There have been several stories reporting one piece of change that’s happening at IHG Rewards – the introduction of a new mid-tier level, a change in the name of their top tier, and new qualification requirements for status.

I spoke with Heather Balsley this morning. She’s Senior Vice President of Global Loyalty and Partnerships at IHG Hotels & Resorts. And she shared some other pieces of what’s changing now, and what’s coming in the next few months where the focus will be on elite benefits, the area where she seemed to agree IHG has historically had the biggest opportunities for improvement.

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What’s Going On Between Airlines And 5G?

by Gary Leff

Jan 19 2022

It’s all either a trumped up non-issue, or an aviation apocalypse, depending on whom you ask. The worry is that C-band 5G at the power and frequency that will be used in the U.S. could send confusing signals to radio altimeters in aircraft, leading to confusion over the altitude at which the plane is flying, and problems for other systems in some aircraft like Boeing 777s as well. What’s going on here?

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Marriott Travel Packages Are Gone And Bonvoy Failed To Provide The Promised Notice To Members

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Jan 19 2022

Last week Marriott dropped into their terms and conditions that they were eliminating travel packages effective January 19, 2022. This was apparently published in the terms and conditions too early, and Marriott removed this from their published terms telling me they “published prematurely..[w]e will have additional details for members in the coming days.”

However Marriott never told members in advance about this change.

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Omicron May Not Be The Last Of Travel’s Woes From Covid-19

by Gary Leff

Jan 18 2022

The view now is that we just need to get through Omicron. Indeed the industry is gearing up for a return to normal after the Omicron wave. There’s hope that more borders will re-open, more employees will return to office, and there’ll be a return to normal travel and then some given intertemporal substitution – that people refrained from travel for a long time, and will make up for it quickly.

Underlying this belief are several assumptions, which are very much the ‘base case’ but are far from assured.

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