Downgraded: The view on AirTran
While US Airways has long had ads on the tops of their tray tables, which you only see if you pull the tray down, AirTran is going a step further and pasting ads on the undersides — the side you see during takeoff and landing, when those traytables are in their “upright and locked position.” The Ryanairification of American air travel is nearly complete. Stay classy!
Downgraded: Premium seats on Qantas
Qantas is cutting the number of premium seats. No surprises there.
Upgraded: A380 first class seats
The Global Traveller has flown the A380 on Singapore, Qantas, and Emirates, and offers a comparison of all three products. Well played, sir. Well played.
Downgraded: Airbus A380, not so premium
In direct contrast to the previous item, how about an A380 equipped with 840 seats? Air Austral, which travels between La Réunion in the Indian Ocean and Paris, has ordered two single-class A380s, jam-packed with passengers.
Upgraded: Tokyo
Forget Paris, New York, San Francisco, London, Chicago… Tokyo gets the nod for the city with the most top Michelin-starred restaurants.
Downgraded: Flying into de facto lava fields
Horrible event, but a great headline: “Plane Misses Runway, Lands in Lava“… The accident occurred in Goma, Congo, where the runway was cut in half by the lava flow from a 2002 volcanic eruption. Apparently, there were a few injuries, but thankfully no deaths.
Downgraded: Amex cards’ point/mile programs
Want to earn the miles or points from an affinity credit card purchase? Be sure to pay the bill on time. American Express is withholding the points if the cardholder doesn’t pay the bill by the due date. Customers forfeit the points, unless they pay a $29 reinstatement fee, in addition to late charges and interest. This isn’t just Amex: JPMorgan Chase has a similar policy with their United Visa. Expect this to be the norm. And try to pay that bill on time.
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
November 20th, 2009 at 8:55 am
From the article about the 840-seat plane: “fuel consumption levels below two litres per passenger per 100 kilometres can be expected. ” For those who think in miles and gallons, that’s a pretty amazing 118 mpg per passenger, at 560 mph.
I realize it’d be pretty crowded. But those numbers are impressive.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Actually,
This isn’t a change to AMEX policy at all. Points never hit your account until you’ve paid for the charges, not when the charges occur. If the charges are paid for late — you have to pay the $29 fee to restore them (but, you can usually get *all* late charges restored, just ask nicely).
Also, AMEX will let you “borrow” points to buy something now and “pay” for it later (points you accrue will deduct from the borrowed points). They let you borrow points based on your purchasing history. It can be very handy.
What I’d really like to see is for American Airlines to get off their high horse and join the Membership Rewards partner program so that I can spend my points on AA….
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:54 am
@Baseball Mike,
Actually, you’re referring to the Membership Rewards program, which is Amex’s proprietary program. The original post was referring to airline and hotel points offered via an Amex card, such as the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express.
I carry the Starwood Amex, and I can assure you that my points have always transferred into the SPG account the day after the billing cycle closed, without regard for my actual payment of the bill. It happened again this month. Bill closed on the 18th, and the points hit my account on the 19th. (Incredible, actually.)
So it IS a change to Amex policy for points in external programs like Delta SkyMiles, Hilton HHonors, or SPG.
What I didn’t realize was that Amex’s in-house Membership Rewards already had the no-pay, no-points policy, and that they’re now aligning their cards that link to the external programs with that same schedule. Thanks for pointing that out.
November 25th, 2009 at 2:00 am
What Mark said — just today I got my HHonors from Amex; the most recent billing cycle ended yesterday.