United Airlines Will Run 32 New York-DC Flights A Day To Squat Their Slots

by Gary Leff

Oct 26 2021

New York LaGuardia, New York JFK and Washington National airports are ‘slot controlled’. That means there are limits on the number of takeoffs and landings at each airport, and the right to use those have been given (free!) to incumbent airlines as a property right. That’s a huge subsidy to incumbent carriers.

Normally slots come with ‘use it or lose it’ rules. If an airline doesn’t make use of their slots 80% of the time, those slots can be reassigned to another carrier. As a result you’ll see airlines flying more or less ghost flights, service designed to hold the slot rather than meet any economic need.

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20% Of Hertz Rental Cars Will Be Teslas In A Year

by Gary Leff

Oct 25 2021

Rental car prices have in many cases become the biggest expense of a trip. Rental companies offloaded vehicle inventories during the pandemic, and didn’t place orders. The market for cars is tight. And travel has picked back up. So there’s more people looking for cars than there are cars. Prices are sky high.

Hertz went through bankruptcy. And now they’re refreshing their fleet with…100,000 Teslas. Wow.

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American Airlines Stock Has Substantially Outpaced The Industry. Here’s Why.

by Gary Leff

depressed businessman leaning his head below a bad stock market chart
Oct 25 2021

American Airlines stock has gone up substantially more than airline peers over the last 12 months.
CEO Doug Parker highlighted this in an employee meeting following the carrier’s third quarter earnings call on Thursday. However rather than being a testament to the airline’s good works as he suggests, there’s a simple reason for the growth in share price.

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10,000 Extra Miles And 10 Upgrade Certs, Sign Up To Be Notified About New Air Canada Credit Card

by Gary Leff

Oct 25 2021

Details on the new Air Canada Aeroplan credit card from Chase will come out in December. As a result of the co-brand relationship, Air Canada is already a transfer partner of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards.

Already you can get an extra 10,000 miles with the card if you sign up to be notified when it launches. Now they’re adding 10 upgrades into the mix as well and dropping a hint about a card benefit. This adds onto an easy status match for U.S. frequent flyers.

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NASA Director: UFOs Are Real And May Be Aliens

by Gary Leff

Oct 24 2021

When President Obama became President the first thing he asked about was UFOs. Because if you’re the President you can finally learn what’s inside Area 51. And Obama thinks UFOs are real.

Now the Director of NASA, former Senator Bill Nelson, says we don’t have any idea what UFOs are but something is out there – and that aliens is probably a better outcome for us than some sort of stealth technology held by an adversary on earth.

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