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.
The Department of Transportation has just sent letters to United Airlines, American, Delta and Southwest demanding significant information about their frequent flyer programs – how they’ve changed the price of awards, whether they give advance notice of program changes to members, and how the value of their points has changed over the past six years.
United has consistently devalued its miles since eliminating award charts in 2019. Delta will charge more than 4 times as many miles for the same exact seat compared to its partners. Southwest has devalued its points 43% in twelve years.
American’s approach to international flying, broadly, is to fly to their close partner hubs and to operate seasonally to other destinations.
A passenger flying Helsinki to Copenhagen on Monday clearly didn’t fit into the seat. From the photo it appears to me to be a Norwegian Boeing 737. The passenger sharing it offers that they felt sorry for the large gentleman who didn’t fit at the aisle “and the guy next to him in the middle seat.”
Having seen Starlink perform first on JSX and more recently on Hawaiian I can say that it really is the best inflight wifi product by a lot. Beyond faster speeds, it just has very very low latency. The technical aspects of it are outside my area but signals just don’t have as far to travel with the satellites in low earth orbit. Installations can be done in a single overnight period.
JetBlue’s seat back entertainment map now displays the Palestinian territory, and it does so in “significantly larger text” than Israel “to the point where it is overlaid on the entire state of Israel.”
The meat of Lorenzo’s argument is this: airlines are forced to comply with more stringent rules than exist for other industries.
A reader shares his experience checking in at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg. He presented his ID and credit card. The associated thanked him for being a Bonvoy Platinum member. And then “summoned security over” and told him he was being walked.
Vasu Raja has been giving interviews after being let go as American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer. American’s financial results have been poor, and at some level either he needed to go, or the CEO did. It’s not surprising which decision got made.
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.
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 »
