Delta is losing less money, making customers happy, and sees the near-term dominated by leisure travel that doesn’t touch the coasts. Business travel has tripled, but it’s off of a low base. All the forecast good news means they foresee when they’ll stop blocking middle seats.
The brightest spot is their American Express credit card deal – they are beginning to acquire customers again, excited by the performance of the current limited-time offer.
Frequent flyers know that checked baggage is never a good idea. It can get you arrested even when there’s nothing illegal inside. They say there’s only two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost. It turns out there’s a third, “accessory to a crime.”
Remember Thailand’s ridiculous tourism visa scheme? Turns out that no one even applied. It’s been called off, and leadership is back developing a new plan: Assign someone to follow around each tourist, and make sure they don’t have contact with any Thai people.
Singapore Airlines took two of their latest configuration Airbus A380s and turned them into a popup restaurant. They offered tickets for “Restaurant A380 @ Changi” yesterday and their two planned dates (October 24 and 25) sold out in 30 minutes.
So Singapore is extending the concept, offering the restaurant for a longer period, and has also created a waitlist.
Chase has now integrated its Tock partnership, through something called Chase Dining, into the Ultimate Rewards website and Chase mobile app offering, And they’re letting Sapphire cardmembers redeem points at 1.25 or 1.5 cents apiece.
Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign is asking for donations by offering a Platinum card to denote membership in an exclusive tier in exchange. It isn’t just a ‘Platinum card’ but features an image of a person (Trump / a Centurion) in the center and the card’s border is very similar to the American Express Platinum Card as well.
The largest U.S. domestic airline is already a significant player in both the Houston and Chicago markets. They’re doubling down by extending service to a second airport in each city. Just as they’re taking American Airlines head on in Miami, they’ll be taking on United (Houston Intercontinental) and United and American (Chicago O’Hare) at those major carrier hubs.
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.
Sean Doyle, the CEO of Aer Lingus, will be the new British Airways CEO – with Aer Lingus’ Chief Corporate Affairs Office Donal Moriarty becoming Aer Lingus interim CEO. Meanwhile the group’s low cost long haul carrier CEO Fernando Candela will become IAG’s “Chief Transformation Officer” (will one of the transformations be the demse of LEVEL?). Cruz will remain non-executive Chairman of British Airways.
Last week I wrote that airline rules don’t seem to apply to the rich and powerful after Mike McCaul, the fifth wealthiest member of Congress who is in a tight reelection race, flew Washington Dulles to Austin without a mask over his face.
He said it fell off when he was asleep. But new video has surfaced that calls that into question, and suggests the Congressman likely should be banned by United Airlines.
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 »
