News and notes from around the interweb:
- Not everyone likes the AAdvantage elite status changes, and I’m dying… (some NSFW language)
- One million reviews submitted to Tripadvisor last year were fake
- TIL: Modern barf bags date to 1949 and the predecessor to Northwest Airlines.
Previously bags had been made from waxed paper or card. Modern bags are still mainly made from plastic-lined paper, but a significant proportion are now made completely from plastic.
- Air India officially sold to Tata Group
- Lawmaker barred from Allegiant flight on anniversary trip after pushing TSA screener’s hand away during pat down
- Senator Kyrsten Sinema confronted at Washington National airport. Liberal anger at Senators Sinema and Manchin seems odd to me. If you want to advance the Democrats’ agenda, you should want more Senators like Sinema and Manchin, not fewer… more moderate Democrats electable in swing states which provides for a bigger margin where no one moderate is the crucial vote. Those frustrated with passing this agenda are faced with the realities of a razor-thin majority in both houses of Congress, and the median voter theorem.
Once again @kyrstensinema ignores concerned advocate fighting for healthcare for her family in Arizona. #BuildBackBetter pic.twitter.com/GK5t5mHCuc
— People’s Watch (@Peoples_Watch_) October 25, 2021
Do you mean the new Advantage Program is not better for their clients, I am shocked
Gary, some ideas for valuable posts given the announcement of AA’s “Loyalty Points” scheme:
1. Can you confirm an example (a formula would be even better!) for how to calculate Loyalty Points for partner flights?
2. What will happen to 500-mile upgrade certificates in AA wallets come 3/1/22?
I’m assuming that since you mentioned “elite program,” that you’re making the assumption that elite “for the elite rich?” Is that what [elite program] means?
@Jim F – I don’t think there is an answer to your first question, since nothing has been released regarding that. (As of 10/28) My guess would be, it’s going to be something like the charts we now have for partner flights, where they compute EQD by Ticket Class and Actual Miles Flown and now an Elite Status Multiplier. So, for example, a Platinum Pro flying business class JFK-LHR would be 3451 miles x .25 dollars/miles x 9 Loyalty Points/dollar = 7765 Loyalty Points.
If this is the case, then flying Premium Economy on non-stop BA routes to/from LHR from Western US cities could be a sweet spot, with it generating a premium number of Loyalty Points.
As for your second question, I don’t see why that would change. They’re still going to keep track of how many miles you actually fly, which is how 500-mile certificates are generated. And you should be able to cash them in for upgrades, I’ve seen no one indicating that part of Gold/Platinum status is going away.
Electable? The people who elected Sinema are so furious she won’t be elected again. Her and Manchin have wasted 10 months with their petty power play which they are doing to appease their millionaire donors. Manchin is also screwing his constituents as they need the programs he is resisting. Ironically, if they don’t bypass the filibuster and fix all the state level republican voter suppression laws, we won’t have to worry about those two sellouts because the US will become a one party fascist state ala Italy in the 1930’s. As a rich white person Gary, you will be safe for a while, but you better increase your donations to the “Party” or your business WILL be outlawed. Well, at least the trains will run on time…..
Jorge, when and with who did you drink the Kool-Aide?
@ Dougie — I think Jorge is pretty accurate in his thinking.
I think DisAAdvantage website is brilliant. It really captures what is happening with AA nowadays. With recent changes the CEO is telling everyone that the company gave up on flying airplanes. Furthermore, instead of improving their mediocre credit card products, they will try to sell you the same thing but under a promise of a lousy service on sardine-packed and always delayed flights in the future. We all knew that the only thing Doug can do well is to run a low-coster … and it shows. Then the only thing left for AA is to merger with Frontier. Just stay tuned….
The DisAAvantage was so hilarious. Very creative. Love it! Back to the issue, don’t get me wrong – I am being screwed just like all of you. However, if you think about it, we are the ones to blame. Not Parker, not Kirby, but us. Those two keep making the programs get worse and worse, and we keep coming back, and supporting them. Earning miles changing from the flying distance plus elite bonus to the “x5, x7, x9, x11”, yet we stayed with them. Award tickets changed from
@C_M That’s an interesting equation that I hadn’t considered.
I’ve been working on the assumption that total Loyalty Points earned on partner bookings will be based on distance, cabin bonus, and the % bonus that a flyer’s elite status gives them and that the cost multiplier that American uses for its own flights won’t come into the equation (i.e we go back to how miles earned were calculated in the old days).
So, to use your example of a Plat Pro flying JFK-LHR in J on BA:
Base Miles = 3,451 (100%)
Cabin Bonus = ~863 (25%)
Elite Status Bonus = ~2,761 (80%)
Total redeemable miles & Loyalty Points = ~7,075
Of course, this is American Airlines that we’re discussing so anything is possible! 🙂
@Gary – Our current political system incentivizes the polarization (read: extremes), and they generally each get 2 years at the helm before a return to divided government. Today’s elections are generally won by tiny margins based on who manages to scrounge up slightly better turnout, so both parties are entrenched in trying to excite their base. The way they do this does involve proffering preferred policy, but mostly, it’s about “negative partisanship” aka “we’ll all die if $OTHER_PARTY is elected!”
The theories for why this is our current state of affairs are numerous. My personal favorite right now is that it’s in part because Google and Facebook are soaking up ad dollars that used to flow to local newspapers, thus starving the papers into destruction, and eroding one of the foundations of our democratic experiment.
Anyway, my preferred solution is breaking the duopoly (research suggests having 3 parties somehow has an odd effect of tamping down negative partisanship) by enacting ranked-choice voting. forwardparty.com FTW! VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY!!!
Ahh The everyone gets a trophy crowd.