Lesson From The Deal Of The Year, Don’t Neglect Other SimplyMiles

by Gary Leff

Dec 15 2021

If you were going to buy from Wine.com or CVS anyway these are incredible deals, and maybe worth doing even if you weren’t going to. MovieClub was profitable on its own, but the charity offer if you had it was more lucrative and you probably didn’t want the MovieClub product. Vinesse wines are terrible (in my experience) but again miles worth more than the purchase price. Barnes & Noble effectively got you a rebate of the full value of a book (or other) purchase in the form of miles. And this isn’t the first time they ran a sextuple miles offer, they did it at the end of 2019 also.

All of which is to say this bonus highlights SimplyMiles and makes it something worth checking more often than I would have before.

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American’s Chief Commercial Officer Lays Out A New Vision For The Airline

by Gary Leff

Dec 15 2021

American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja laid out a new vision for the carrier, as part of the announcement of a new senior leadership team that comes with Doug Parker’s stepping down as CEO and Robert Isom taking that position at the end of March.

It’s a customer-focused vision which isn’t something we’ve seen clearly articulated at American Airlines since US Airways took over. (“Caring for people on life’s journey” is too non-specific and milquetoast to count.)

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American Airlines Names New Senior Leadership Team – But One Spot Is Glaringly Vacant

by Gary Leff

Dec 14 2021

When American Airlines announced that Chairman and CEO Doug Parker would become non-executive Chairman on March 31, 2022 and current President Robert Isom would take over as CEO and join the board, I wrote that Executive Vice President of People and Communications Elise Eberwein would step down as well. That’s now official.

Robert Isom has named his new leadership team and it’s interesting as much for what hasn’t been stated as what has.

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Spirit Airlines Thinks They Can Win In Memphis With Fares So Low People Will Come From All Over

by Gary Leff

spirit plane
Dec 14 2021

Los Angeles is surprisingly lightly served from Memphis, with Delta offering non-daily service and Allegiant flying the route. There’s no United or American flights. Memphis – Las Vegas has limited service, from Allegiant and Frontier. And Memphis – Orlando has very limited service from Southwest and Frontier. All are routes where Spirit has a shot. And, for their strategy, if the fares are low enough people will come from all over.

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Hilton Increases Elite Food And Beverage Credit

by Gary Leff

Dec 14 2021

On July 1, 2021 Hilton replaced breakfast as an elite benefit at U.S. hotels with a daily food and beverage credit. This was temporary for 2021.

The concept is amazing (use the credit for a meal other than breakfast, use the credit for room service) but the amount was too low and didn’t cover the least expensive items in major cities. At some hotels it wouldn’t even cover a cup of coffee with tax if you tip (which is expected).

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