In the midst of the political skirmish of the federal debt limit, the idea has once again surfaced to have the Treasury mint a trillion dollar coin and deposit it at the Fed in order to avoid the need to borrow more money. So it’s worth remembering just where this idea originateed: one of the best frequent flyer miles deals.
American Airlines, and in particular current Tempe management, is known in the industry for being ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’
They spend lavishly on aircraft, investing in foreign airlines, and a new corporate headquarters (now supported with $10 billion in taxpayer cash over the last 18 months) while taking short cuts on employee pay and customer experience. And it winds up costing them more money in the long run.
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.
In exchange for $79 billion in direct subsidies from the federal government, airlines agreed not to drop any of the routes they flew before the pandemic without permission from the Department of Transportation.
If a customer goes to the JetBlue website and books a JetBlue flight, they expect the JetBlue product. Having to pay for wifi, getting less legroom, and with no seat back television is going to be jarring. And it risks undermining the brand JetBlue has built.
Hyatt’s plan to expire points again is a stark contrast to Hilton which says they won’t expire points in 2022. Of course Hilton also extended status and free night certificates again. We’re still waiting to hear from Marriott on their card certificate plan for next year and whether they’ll make any more pandemic accommodations.
Legacy US Airways planes were heavily skewed towards lots of economy seats. US Airways didn’t sell a lot of premium seats, and when they did they sold those seats cheaply, which matched both their route network and their inflight product.
When US Airways management took over American Airlines they set out to take business class seats out of planes and add seats to lower cabins. Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja suggests this needs to change.
The American Airlines-JetBlue codeshares cover New York and Boston. American’s new New York – Tel Aviv and Athens routes are both served by Delta. Now Delta is retaliating against that new service by adding the same destinations from Boston.
Is Delta doing anything here other than proving that the American Airlines-JetBlue partnership spurs competition in the Northeast?
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.
Vasu Raja is American’s Chief Revenue Officer. He’s risen rapidly in the organization during the pandemic. I love listening to him because he makes bold claims about the world, sometimes not entirely backed by facts or evidence. But he’s never mealy-mouthed in his assessments.
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 »
