Tag Archives for amazon.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn exploded during a launch pad test before an Amazon Leo satellite mission. Amazon’s airline Wi-Fi plan depends on getting thousands of satellites into orbit fast, and losing New Glenn launch capacity removes precious slack while Starlink-equipped rivals race ahead.
Delta had a chance to move to Starlink, the inflight wifi system United is racing to install across its fleet. But an early SpaceX investor says the deal fell apart because Delta wanted Starlink behind its own branded portal — and now United may have the better passenger experience for years.
Delta just picked Amazon’s not-yet-operational Leo service to replace its current inflight Wi-Fi on 500 aircraft starting in 2028, giving Amazon a marquee airline customer and a badly needed foothold against Starlink. But for passengers, the more important point is that Delta is still moving slowly: United’s Starlink rollout is already underway and is expected to be much further along before Delta’s new system even starts showing up onboard.
JetBlue is expected to announce a delay to equip some of its planes with Amazon wifi, as the launch airline for the product that’s supposed to be even faster than Starlink.
Bilt Rewards, which only just launched its travel portal with Expedia last week, has another big partnership out already with Amazon.com. They’re offering points for linking accounts and for first redemption with Amazon.
Bilt has come a long way now that they not only keep adding transfer partners and redemption options but (1) have Wells Fargo backing as their card issuer, (2) have partnered with Expedia, and (3) also now with Amazon. They’ve gone from program launch to the big leagues in just one year.
Amazon is now shipping packages for the US Postal Service and starting to roll out “logistics as a service” to companies in the U.S. and rolling out its lower-cost competitor to UPS and FedEx over the next year and a half.
This morning I wrote about a 20% transfer bonus from Brex points to miles. I have a stash of 215,000 points thanks to a signup bonus and a Paypal deal – some of the easiest 215,000 points I’ve ever accrued.
As if the Brex deal hadn’t been good enough already, I received an email from them today: “Your Amazon Gift Card”
American Express issues a small business card with Amazon, and Synchrony Financial issues the Amazon store card. Both issuers are bidding on the Amazon consumer co-brand business.
Amazon has brought back a great deal: 40% off if you pay with American Express points for your purchase. The trick here is you only need to use 1 point to get 1 cent off your purchase total in order to qualify for the deal.
Amazon’s former head of visual effects for Amazon Studios, Marc Sadeghi, is suing the company saying he was fired for upgrading a flight to New Zealand despite a medical condition he claims made coach travel impossible. If he wins, upgrades as a disability accommodation could become the emotional support animals of the 2020s.
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 »
