News notes from around the interweb:
- New U.S. domestic airline bookings fell 5% week-on-week, the recovery in travel seems to be sputtering.
- Etihad finally implements its improved mileage expiration policy which is great because they’re a transfer partner of American Express and Citibank, and because they’ve got some decent sweet spots redeeming on their own flights and with their partners.
- It’s a year old but I’ve just re-read it, this Atlantic piece was the best thing written on MH370.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer has 4.6 million members and they redeemed 39 billion miles last year. I love knowing the size of frequent flyer member files, just wish I knew the size of those with program activity in the past 18 months was.
- Las Vegas bars close back down tonight
- The Trump administration gets more on board with further airline bailouts, here’s Treasury Secretary Mnuchin:
I think we’re very pleased in the work that we’ve done at Treasury to help the airline industry. It’s strategically important to keep it together, but that’s clearly an industry. Restaurants, hotels, airlines are clearly going to be areas where they’re going to need more help.
If you want to understand Washington there’s no better introduction than the first half (but stop there) of Eddie Murphy’s The Distinguished Gentleman.
Truth from any pandemic: the more people are afraid of dying, the less economic activity (travel) there will be.
The number of deaths in the U.S. have started their sad climb as scientist told us they would do 3 weeks after a similar climb of new cases and people are responding.
As new daily cases have been climbing over the last 3 weeks the future is already written: travel will tank even more.
Nothing could have done more harm to the U.S. economy than the early surrender to the virus (under the lie of “economic” reopening). For all the taxes paid, what a crappy deal.
@Jake
How much does China pay you to troll here?
@Jake – “early” re-opening is a misnomer. The idea that states opened ‘too soon’ presumes that waiting to re-open would have changed the trajectory of the virus. but it likely would not have. lock downs weren’t sufficient to crush the virus, just to hold down infection at a stable level. and most states didn’t really use the time to build robust tracing capabilities that could have been paired with enforced quarantines, either. so whenever states opened they were at risk of real spread.
That Atlantic article on MH370 is fascinating and chilling; I remember reading it last summer at a friends house in NY and thinking, wow it looks pretty bad for the pilot. Cranky recommended it at that time. How different the world is a year later.
The truth is that with diligent social distancing and mask wearing, we could have shut down the economy, less severely. Just close places where people stay close together, like bars, theatres, sporting events, etc. But now it is so political to wear a mask. We get what we deserve. Paybacks are a bitch for not listening to the experts early on. Sorry to say, we were warned.
@MarkTexas
How much does Putin pay you to troll here?
The plane was ditched. All the parts found fit that scenario.
If it had smashed “into a million pieces” they would still be washing up now.