News and notes from around the interweb:

• You can double dip with Starbucks Rewards and Aeroplan in Canada

  

• Afghanistan’s first female tour guide

• Spirit Airlines elite status 90 day match plus challenge to keep your level but how on earth do you spend $1250 in 90 days on Spirit Airlines with $30 fares and fees waived with the temporary status you’ll get?

• How Industry, Unions Hurt Women Pilot Recruitment & Retention

• As part of its lobbying efforts to secure the second airline bailout, American threated to terminate service to 15 small cities. They embarrassed themselves, forgetting they had legal obligations to continue flying to two of those cities through an Essential Air Service Agreement.

  American asked DOT to be relieved of its obligations and was told no. Instead they re-opened the bidding for subsidies, and United won. (American had previously agreed to operate the routes without subsidy to keep United from winning the last round, and this time they asked for a bigger subsidy but this gambit backfired.)

  United Express will offer daily flights to Chicago International Airport and Denver International Airport, replacing the current twice daily flights to and from Dallas. Flight schedules are being worked out among the airline and airport staff, the city said in a statement. According to the SkyWest bid, flights to a Houston hub might be offered in the future.

  Under the terms of the bid, the service will run for three years with subsidies of $1,222,934, $795,943 and $498,452 paid to SkyWest over the next three years, respectively.

  American Airlines sought a subsidy of nearly $1.53 million a year to provide 12 round-trip flights a week to Dallas under its American Eagle brand. That is similar to the existing service.

• Americans paid down $83 billion in credit card debt in 2020. There was direct government payments to people with jobs, unemployment that often exceeded how much people were making with jobs, and less to spend money on.

• Progress on the American Airlines LAX Terminal 4-5 consolidation