American Airlines flight attendant Breaunna Ross shared a video of her last announcement on her last flight before her expected furlough. She arrives at Dallas Fort Worth and shares she “didn’t hold it together lolllll.”
Another cabin crew member – who is also getting furloughed – recorded her last announcement. And then the two of them “held hands as [they] landed.”
Summer 2021 is likely to look a lot different, a lot more normal, than the world looks today. It’s as far out as you can book a ticket on most airlines. And the great thing about using miles in most programs is how flexible they are. Worst case scenario a usually modest fee, but some programs like American AAdvantage are waiving award cancellation fees entirely right now. So it’s a great time to book your next adventure!
Cathay Pacific is currently making business class awards widely available between the U.S. and Hong Kong for up to four passengers, from several gateway cities. This allows you to connect beyond Hong Kong to much of Asia.
Rapid tests that are administered downtown, take two hours for results, and cost $135 isn’t the sort of advance we’re seeing elsewhere.
A passenger taped this United flight attendant making his last announcement prior to his expected furlough. This crewmember has been flying for United for two years. He chokes up asking the people on his flight to come back to United for their travels “so that we can come back.” And that’s where I really choke up myself.
In her defense she says she isn’t a seasoned traveler, “you know what? I don’t go on the airport that often.” So she’s just not familiar with the norms for this sort of thing. And she offers, “People make mistakes.”
When airlines gave the government a stake in their businesses, effectively partial nationalization, they created an incentive for the government to continue bailing them out to protect and grow that very stake.
Pumping in another $25 billion makes Secretary Mnuchin’s stock warrants, obtained for bailouts, look better – like he negotiated a ‘win’ for taxpayers.
American Airlines closed on a $5.5 billion government-subsidized loan last week. It can be increased to $7.5 billion. Six more airlines though have closed on loans under these conditions: United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, and SkyWest. Treasury didn’t immediately release the amounts borrowed by each airline, or the collateral used.
Both Democrats and Republicans are calling for $25 billion in additional subsidies, under the guise of protecting workers (although that portion costs less than 10% of the total).
The principles of loyalty marketing can be applied across industries, and the basics are very much the same: recognition (elite benefits) and reward (redemption). While the most successful programs have been in travel – airlines have turned their marketing programs from a cost center into a profit engine – loyalty marketing is important to anywhere consumers make repeated choices.
The Maldives is trying something new with a destination rewards program with three elite levels. Here’s hoping they offer status matches!
American Airlines has added partners that make their frequent flyer program more relevant to people in some of the largest cities in the country this year. American Airlines AAdvantage® miles with your savings account is an even better deal with low interest rates. And there’s the opportunity to earn an extra 25,000 referring friends for new accounts – that gets them a better offer than is publicly available, too – but that ends next month.
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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 »
