Virgin Atlantic has raised $525 million in cash via three new loans, and creditors have agreed to take a hair cut. 42.5% comes from a hedge fund, 50% of the loan comes from Virgin Group, and the remaining 7.5% from a new loan against an aircraft engine.
Delta and Virgin Group get preferred stock as a swap against payments they’re owed by the airline. And the airline is reducing its aircraft lease obligations.
In the fourth quarter, after CARES Act payroll restrictions lift and airlines can furlough employees, American Airlines plans to operate less than 50% 2019 flying and just 25% of international. They simply have too many people for so few flights, because there isn’t nearly as much demand for air travel.
The airline has calculated that they need 40,000 fewer employees compared to a year ago in order to operate this fall. And they’ve worked out the number of furloughs to take place October 1, detailing them by work group.
British Airways makes a lot of business class award space available, but they’re expensive. Departures from the U.K. incur significant ‘air passenger duty’ and awards also incur fuel surcharges. A roundtrip business class award between the U.S. and U.K. might run $1300 in taxes and fees.
Right now there seems to be a quirk booking awards on British Airways that you can exploit to reduce fuel surcharges (or ‘carrier-imposed surcharges’) by about two-thirds.
Iberia is offering 50% off redemptions booked by August 30 for travel September 1, 2020 through March 15, 2021. That’s a six and a half month period for travel, and creates an opportunity where we might just be able to travel again – and do so cheap, from just 17,000 miles each way between the U.S. and Europe.
And I just posted about amazing Iberia business class award availability between Madrid and Chicago, Miami, and New York JFK. Often when Iberia discount awards availability is scarce, but that’s not the case here.
Past advance sales of large blocks of miles to credit card partners have on balance probably been good for members, borrowing against the program may not be although it’s far from a foregone conclusion.
You’d expect lenders to want a strong program to secure future member interest and an ongoing revenue stream yet in practice that’s not how things usually work out. Still, while Delta has a strong elite program, there’s really not much left to devalue on the earn-and-burn side.
Delta has let employees know that they’re furloughing 1,941 pilots hired July 17, 2017 and later. That’s out of a remaining approximately 11,200 remaining pilots with the company, after accounting for voluntary early departures from the airline.
Furlough letters will be sent out this week.
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 Le Meridien and Sheraton in Charlotte are in the same complex. It’s increasingly common for a large hotel to be sold as more than one brand, to appeal to different types of travelers or to people interested in different brands.
However right now it appears that the two hotels are being sold as one. According to reader reports only the Le Meridien is open and people reserving the Sheraton are getting moved to the Le Meridien.
If you think that masks are a good idea then of course you think they should be mandated on airplanes by the federal government, right? Wrong. Airlines already mandate masks, so a federal rule would be duplicative – but likely weaker than what we have today, and tough to ever get rid of.
Since American Airlines only performs electrostatic spraying every 7 days a persistent chemical application is needed (in contrast to other airlines striving to spray between every flight). SurfaceWise 2 will kill viruses for at least a week.
The EPA has approved use of the chemical – but only for application in Texas airports and for flights departing Texas.
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 »
