American Airlines will partner with and invest in South American ultra low cost carrier Jetsmart, which is owned by the same parent company as Frontier Airlines and Europe’s Wizz Air. Jetsmart operates coach-only densely configured Airbus A320 narrowbody planes from Chile and Argentina, serving 33 destinations.
Back in the fall of 2003 United had a guy named Ted going around Denver picking up lunch tabs for entire restaurants. You see, Ted was their new low cost carrier ‘within the airline’ that United was launching. Ted was your friend. He was fun. That’s not how Ted turned out, in fact Ted – which shared the last 3 letters of United – was often described as being “the end of United.” And United retired Ted on January 6, 2009. Around the time that United was paying someone to pick up lunch, US Airways decided it needed to respond and so a guy named “Seth” picked up a few lunch tabs in Crystal City near the carrier’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters. Although by that time US Airways’ low cost carrier within a carrier MetroJet was…
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.
Earlier I covered the American Airlines flight attendants who were stuck sleeping at the airport because they weren’t provided a hotel room for their layover. In it, I mentioned that the grievance filed by the flight attendants union indicated pilots were having similar problems with the airline’s accommodations (and ground transportation) providers.
American’s pilots also filed a grievance. While they don’t note pilots sleeping in airports, they do report a pilot sleeping in a hotel lobby because of lack of a room for the night.
United Airlines now offers pre-order meals, snacks, and drinks in coach starting five days prior to departure. So far this is only available on some flights out of Chicago to 4 markets but will “expand to all flights over 1,500 miles by early fall.”
This morning I wrote about a 20% transfer bonus from Brex points to miles. I have a stash of 215,000 points thanks to a signup bonus and a Paypal deal – some of the easiest 215,000 points I’ve ever accrued.
As if the Brex deal hadn’t been good enough already, I received an email from them today: “Your Amazon Gift Card”
The American Airlines flight attendants union has filed a grievance against the airline because, it says, cabin crew are being forced to “in airports and outside of baggage claim” because they can’t get rooms on their layovers. And they report that pilots “are dealing with the same issues.”
This is an incredibly heartwarming story. Prieska Outland came upon a woman cleaning one of the bathrooms at the Charlotte airport. The woman was distraught. They to talking and beneath her mask were four missing teeth, and she was saving up to have them replaced. She had just 4% of the money she needed. And Ms. Outland verified the story, and paid the rest to the dentist to have it done.
There’s no “obvious place” to transfer miles. Normally I don’t want to transfer points out of a transferrable program unless I have to. The option value is too strong. However I don’t entirely trust Brex as a place to store points, especially since I’m not actively continuing to use the account.
Through August 8, 2021, Brex is offering a 20% bonus on points transfers to several mileage programs. And that caused me to work through my options.
Delta already bonused all travel towards elite status and made award trips count too. Now they’re throwing in the towel, more or less, and calling 2021 another wash as they don’t want to risk losing elite members who may again be valuable customers.
They’ve also figured out how to continue incentivizing elites to travel this year – at the expense of those who do not.
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 »
