ASIA

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Air Canada CEO: Expect an Aeroplan Devaluation in 2020

Mar 16 2017

Air Canada’s frequent flyer program Aeroplan was spun off into a separate public company in 2005. As a separate company, the frequent flyer program makes arms-length transactions with the airline and has a very extensive contract allowing it to buy a minimum number of seats and other benefits.

Air Canada expects to negotiate more favorable terms for the airline compared to the current contract which expires in 2020.

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Marriott Introduces United Gold Status for Top Elites: Signaling Direction of Airline Partnerships?

outside marriott hotel
Mar 13 2017

Starwood and Delta launched a major partnership four years ago. Crossover Rewards offered reciprocal points-earning and a modest degree of status recognition.

Delta had been talking with Marriott about a deal, but my recollection from the time is that Marriott balked over price. Delta simply wanted too much to do the deal. However Marriott launched a partnership with United months after Delta and Starwood went public.

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Travel Hacking and the Law Of One Price

first class
Mar 12 2017

I was talking with Yana about Virgin Atlantic’s amazing ANA awards — seriously, roundtrip in one of the world’s better first class products for 110,000 miles between the US and Tokyo — and I was outlining all of the hoops you have to jump through.

Yana’s response to that whole discussion was perfect and just 5 words: the Law of One Price.

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The Simple Reason for an About Face: Why Delta and Korean Are About to Form a Joint Venture

Mar 09 2017

In 2013 Delta eliminated SkyMiles elite qualifying miles earning when traveling on their SkyTeam partner Korean Air.

Scuttlebutt at the time was that this was Delta playing hardball with Korean — the Seoul-based carrier wouldn’t do a joint venture with Delta, at least on Delta’s terms, so they weren’t going to incentivize their customers to fly Korean Air.

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The US Government Just Sent a New Worldwide Travel Security Caution

Mar 05 2017

I’ve always found US government travel warnings to be overly cautious. I have no problem transiting the Istanbul airport, booking an award on Turkish Airlines (just hope your seat opponent doesn’t whisper to a flight attendant that you’re a Gulenist).

Since I’m willing to go places like this, it seems worth highlighting a counterpoint. The government doesn’t say ‘don’t go to Mexico’ just that there are some Bad Hombres™ there.

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Basically No Notice – Club Carlson Hotel Category Changes Go Into Effect Tomorrow

Feb 28 2017

These aren’t many hotels that are changing category, but Club Carlson’s category changes were posted online (and they go into effect tomorrow, March 1.

Hotels in the US and Asia are going up. Hotels in Europe, Mideast and Africa are mostly going down. In all 13 hotels are going up in category, 7 are going down, for 20 total changes.

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