News and notes from around the interweb:
- Etihad’s invitation-only frequent flyer tier ‘Exclusive’
- Delta launches 15% off award travel for its credit card holders — but there might be a catch “it’s unclear whether the value of the new [TakeOff 15] benefit will be tempered by the airline charging higher rates on award travel overall.” Ya think? Of course the real catch is that these are SkyMiles which are generally worth less than competitor currencies to begin with.
- Several Amex cardmembers have been informed they still get Centurion lounge guest access, despite not spending $75k on their Platinum cards. In several cases it seems as though spend across Amex products was counted.
- Hertz wanted 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022; it has fewer than 50,000
- I wonder which is scarier for passengers, the need for their flight to divert or that they’re diverting to.. Iraq?
Emirates #EK181 to Brussels just diverted to Erbil, Iraqhttps://t.co/PkCbCHklcG @RadarBoxCom pic.twitter.com/cfUgcZzqtS
— AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) February 7, 2023
- Of course the President doesn’t fly coach. President Trump didn’t either, owned his own planes, and once owned an airline. Biden entered the Senate in 1972, it’s been a long time since he was a ‘regular Joe’. But pointing to his regular Amtrak rides, on ‘all business and first class’ Acela Express, where he used Joe R. Biden Station in Wilmington doesn’t make the point that he’s really a coach traveler.
What a stupid tweet! He’s President. Years on Amtrak before that. https://t.co/wsRSx8y3EQ
— Robert Shrum (@BobShrum) February 8, 2023
@ Gary — Delta has already lowered domestic redemptions from a fairly consistent 1.3-1.5 pre-COVID to 1.1-1.3 now. There’s your 15%. They are already a step ahead of us, but I honestly don’t expect further devaluation of domestic awards. But if they do, I certainly hope my SkyMiles balance is closer to zero by then.
Gene, thanks for the confirmation. I was seeing the Delta devaluation on my flights and suspected that it was an unannounced across-the-board devaluation.
If you think about it, as Delta is willing to charge more points for award flights, why doesn’t Delta charge more for lounge access so as to get that under control? Ha.
I was watching flights from Chicago O’Hare to Europe first week in September. They were pricing out at 92,000 miles economy round-trip. Same dates now 144,000 miles, 15% discount, 122,000 miles economy round-trip. What a deal!
It’s Delta. Does anyone truly expect better from them?
Delta happens to be the best US airline. People complain about free stuff. Amazing! I stopped flying the others long ago.