Tagging Miles

Now for something completely different: Glenlivet Scotch Pods

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Its been an interesting weekend when it comes to Bourbon, Whiskey, and Scotch. Its not often that I delve afield of my normal Miles, Points, Travel, and Reselling topics, but, this one just felt right. Perhaps its all the Glenlivet, Knobs Creek, and Woodford Reserve I and so many of you have enjoyed at 40,000 feet. Maybe I just wanted the opportunity to see how “Glenlivet Scotch Pods” works for SEO? Only time will tell.

Introducing: Scotch Pods

The weekend started with these wonderful spirits in bottles, yet somehow, Saturday found this:

Glenlivet Scotch Pods

I can offer no better description than calling these Scotch “Tide Pods” offering from Glenlivet (a scotch I keep in the bar as I enjoy it occasionally):

 

CNN , notes that the Tide Pods Challenge craze has passed, but now we have Scotch pods, the adult equivalent for individuals who don’t want their spirits on ice, or even in a glass!

Later that evening, I saw a “competing” add from Knob Creek Bourbon, harkening back to a traditional Old Fashion:

 

Wrapping up: Scotch Pods

I love seeing innovation, I really do! But, some things are steeped in tradition, and that’s part of the marketing. Think of Champagne! Even sparkling wines made outside of the Champagne region proudly boast: “méthode champenoise” Specifically stating that the sparkling wine was made in the champagne method. A traditional method of creating bubbles that harkens back centuries. The idea that such an esteemed scotch producer, such as Glenlivet, who’s beginnings go back to 1822, would embrace such a “fad” or “marketing gimmick” is challenging at best. I’ll still enjoy the occasional Glenlivet, but, I feel like this one is going to be a blip that the folks over at Glenlivet will regret letting out.

What do you think? Would you have a Glenlivet Scotch Pod?

Could the Delta NRA Spat break the Atlanta Fortress Hub?

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I hate to get into politics, but there is an aviation-linked story that is just too amazing to skip: the Delta NRA spat. You see, Delta Airlines posted last week that it would no longer honor NRA discounts. Gary Leff reported that Delta was starting to “walk back” it’s anti-NRA stance. 

Delta NRA

Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor made a threat:

Delta NRA

Did Delta’s NRA Stance hurt them?

I’m not one for making such an argument, but the media is certainly making a quick connection of the Delta NRA argument. On 1 March, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal was prepared to sign a tax bill that lacked relief for a jet fuel tax for Delta Airlines. It’s important to note that Delta Airlines is headquartered in Georgia, and is a kind of a big employer. 

Could the NRA break Delta’s Atlanta Fortress Hub? 

For the uninitiated, a Fortress hub exists when an airline controls the majority of the market. I used to think that there was no greater example than Delta and Atlanta, though for some reason, American Airlines seems to win the news, with its hub in Charlotte. But American is not the story here. Rather, Delta is. Delta has its Headquarters and largest hub in Atlanta. It further has hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York’s LaGuardia and JFK, Salt Lake City, LAX, and the often talked about Seattle-Tacoma. If I were to brew that down, I’d say Delta’s biggest impacts would be Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis. Atlanta Airport, Delta’s primary hub–and where its headquarters is located–is largely viewed as the world’s busiest airport. 

While I would admit that this is pure speculation, I would ask: Could Georgia’s political decisions over the Delta NRA argument cause the carrier to change their overall strategies?

Lets consider some of the recent issues that Delta has faced:

Conclusion

I’m not going to assert that the Delta NRA spat will cause the company to move its Headquarters or shift focus from its Atlanta hub. But, I’d argue this current situation could be a reason for Delta to open the aperture so to speak, and look at what other options they have. There are many cities and states that would love to get Delta’s headquarters. Just look at how Amazon’s second headquarters is getting so much press. 

I’ll finish with this:

Is this current issue the thing that breaks the Delta Atlanta Fortress Hub?

 

Superbowl LII #Avgeek Commercials

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While most people watch the “big game” for football, others watched for one reason: Super Bowl LII commercials. I found a selection of Super Bowl LII commercials, for this case, with an #avgeek or travel tint.

The first commercial to run was from Turkish Airways.

You may recall last year’s commercial with Morgan Freeman: 

And, oh yeah, they had two advertisements in 2016:

and

But, Turkish isn’t the only travel industry company advertising during Superbowl LII! As Wandering Aramean noted, Tourism Austraila went big.

The full trailer has even more heavyweights in it, though I’m :

While its not necessarily aviation related, the new Mission Impossible movie’s trailer is pretty epic:

As if that is not enough, and not sure if this one actually made a commercial on Super Bowl LII, but gosh this is hillarious:

Overall, I’d say this was a good year for Superbowl LII commercials!

 

A look back at 2017 – travel and predictions

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This time of year its nice to do a little navel gazing and take a look back at 2017. 

A Look Back at 2017 Travel

For me, 2017 was a drastically different year of travel than any of the previous 5 years. Just take a look at my travel map (courtesy of gcmap.com):

A look back at 2017 travel, courtesy of gcmap.com

A look back at 2017 travel, courtesy of gcmap.com

By the numbers:

  • 110,953 miles flown — this is much less than 2016 or 2015!
  • 11 Countries visited (12 including the US)
  • 2 New Countries (Malaysia and Laos)
  • 21 Southwest Flights – That companion pass has been very valuable for us!
  • 2 JetBlue Mint flights (and newly minted Mosaic status)

While the map certainly tells the story of leveraging Southwest Flights, but doesn’t really speak to the “why.”

Largely this year’s focus for travel was on important people and events. Nearly every single personal trip I made was focused on seeing specific people, while some were even focused on people and events. In past years, my focus was more on a new country, or a new place to see, a new airline product to fly. This year my wife and I threw that out of the window–with the exception of our annual trip to Bali.

This year we also had the chance to attend Oktoberfest–with a big group of friends which made the trip so much better! Later this week we’ll be driving up to Sydney, to ring in the new year–a bucket list item.

We also got to see tons of friends, for which I was even willing to sacrifice comfort and fly Southwest to make it happen. 

A note on Southwest: I realize I’ve got a reputation for flying in premium cabins. Flying Southwest was certainly humbling compared. That said, the value of the companion pass is hard to counter. Nearly every flight my wife and I took, we compared it to American, where we have top tier status–and a decent chance of an upgrade–in every single case, Southwest was cheaper when you are only paying for 1 person plus the September 11th fee on the second. Its hard to argue with that math.

2017 Predictions

Like many, I made some predictions for the year ahead in the miles, points, travel, credit card and reselling worlds. 

Doctor of Credit did an assessment of his and others–and I’m appreciative that he included mine. He only covered a subset, and lets just say that I didn’t rate terribly well with only 2/4 rated. I guess I’ve got some work toward becoming the next Nostradamus! 

A couple of highlights:

Reselling – Amazon has found new ways to counter counterfeiters however they haven’t been rolling them out to all of us third party resellers just yet. We’ve seen varying ebbs and flows of category and brand restrictions, some popping up literally over night. Overall though, online and retail arbitragers dodged the bullet this year. Even better, I think the consensus is that the restrictions and some of the other things in the works are actually working to counter counterfeiters.

Loyalty – I think I was pretty much entirely wrong here. Alaska’s award chart is largely intact–I suspect because of the Virgin America merger. Marriott-SPG has made small announcements, but they haven’t yet figured out how to combine systems, so I think all parties are happy for the time being. There’s been no new level of award redemption, however American has continued to make us question whether they ever release award space… But there’s always the opportunity to redeem 10,000 Delta SkyMiles for a bottle of Krug!

Wrapping Up

Overall, 2017 has been a different year for me. I’ve seen parts of the US that I had long been neglecting. Some of those parts, I’ve returned back to multiple times this year because they are so awesome. This year is also perhaps the first year that I’ve seen more friends either in their home areas or my own, rather than running into them in airports or the other side of the world. 

For me, what 2017 boils down to, is that there are so many different ways to make travel work for you. There are so many different priorities that travel can help you to actualize. That’s the key. Fulfillment, not copious amounts of Krug served on EVA Air, or flying the Emirates A380 in First Class. Unless of course that is fulfillment (it was for me a few years ago!).

All this talk about the Jones Act and Puerto Rico

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This isn’t aviation geek, miles and points, or even airline travel related. I’m a merchant mariner, holder of a 100 ton Captain’s license for inland and near coastal waters, bestowed on me from the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and so I felt the need to weigh in on this talk of the Jones Act. I don’t really have many opinions on whether the Jones Act waiver should or should not continue, but rather, I feel strongly that folks should know what the Jones Act is.

About the Jones Act

The Jones Act, also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, is US law, introduced by Senator Wesley Jones (thus the name). Some key provisions of the Jones Act are:

  • Ships that travel between two points in the US must be US Built or largely impacted–my words–by US Shipyards. 
  • Ships that travel between two points in the US must be crewed by at least 75% US seamen
  • Ships that travel between two points in the US must be owned and registered by US companies, and US Flagged.

There are other provisions of the Jones Act. Some that matter more or less to folks. One that impacted me personally, is that a seaman injured onboard a ship is provided maintenance and cure. That is different than workman’s comp. For me, it meant that when I broke my foot while I was running a passenger ferry from Bay Shore, NY to Fire Island, NY, the company covered all of my medical expenses as well as my regular bills–which at the time were just cell phone and car insurance. This sort of thing is important, because sometimes seaman while living on a vessel, have families at home to provide for.

Why the Jones Act made sense to be waived for Puerto Rico

The simple fact of the matter is, that when an island or any region is at risk, you want to get the most aid there, as soon as you can. This is why it made sense for the US Government to waive the Jones Act. The US suspended the act for 10 days. Was 10 days enough? It isn’t clear to me. But lets consider what this suspension meant. This suspension meant that foreign flagged ships, with foreign crew, and foreign ownership, could carry aid supplies between the Continental United States and Puerto Rico.

Lets consider for a moment what that implies. First of all, the implication is that US flagged carriers and crew might be otherwise impacted by Hurricane Irma, and not able to do their jobs in manning ships to get aid supplies to Puerto Rico. 10 days seems reasonable to try to get folks in Florida back to work. 

Why the Jones Act doesn’t matter for the United States Virgin Islands

The Jones Act is important, however, it doesn’t really impact the US Virgin Islands, because they are exempt from the act, as an addition to section 21, which was enacted in 1936, as the addition stated: “And provided further, that the coastwise laws of the United States shall not extend to the Virgin Islands of the United States…” So what does this mean? This means that non-US ships can transport aid to the US Virgin Islands (which are terribly in need, by the way), from the US, without the necessary Jones Act requirements.

Wrapping Up

Overall, the point of my post is an attempt to educate folks on what the Jones Act is and is not. I realize that the Jones Act is being politicized, and that is unfortunate. As a merchant mariner, I feel like we need to acknowledge the value of the act. Really, we should welcome help for Puerto Rico from any nation, and I think largely we–the US–are, but if the Jones Act waiver has ended, I think this means that we, US Mariners, need to be pushing harder to be able to transport the necessary aid from US ports directly to Puerto Rico. If US Shipping companies and Mariners are not available, then perhaps the Jones Act waiver should be expended. But I suspect–with no inside knowledge–that US mariners are ready to get back to work. So hopefully they have already gotten back to work, so we can get our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico back up to speed. I am further hopeful, that US Flagged ships and really any other flagged ships are helping the US and British Virgin Islands to rebuild. These hurricanes were fierce. We need to band together to recuperate.

Is this the end of our relationship American Airlines?

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I remember the moment you accepted my status challenge. I had been a long time United 1K, but the Premier Qualifying Dollar (PQD) introduction was too much for me, coupled with fewer upgrades, so I bailed. All of my friends said you would be so much better, even if your aircraft cabins weren’t at the same level. 
 
I met that status match/challenge with an impromptu trip to India (visiting the Hyatt Delhi and Oberoi Amarvilas), flying on your partner British Airways. It was a 74 hour trip of a lifetime, I still share stories from the trip. It was an amazing start. I had even been successful in convincing my wife to do a status challenge from her United Premier. By the end of 2013, we were both Executive Platinum. A status we coveted and enjoyed for 4 solid years.
 
I even did crazy things to maintain status with you. My wife too! We did date night–dinner, a movie, and a Cairo transit–in February of 2015. It may have been our craziest mileage run ever, I look back on that as amazing fun. 
 
In 2014, my wife and I commonly did Date Night, which at the time constituted of round trip flight from DCA to SFO, via DFW. They were painful. The Centurion Lounge in SFO was never open for us, but at least we could rest at the DFW Centurion Lounge each way. I may be getting older, but gosh, I remember those trips as being fun yet exhausting, even with the complimentary domestic upgrades.
 
But things did change. In 2015 you devalued your award chart. I was sad. Many were sad. But we understood. United had devalued their award chart. Delta, well, we’re not quite sure whether they even have an award chart anymore. So we moved on from there. 
 
I continued to fly. In fact, my wife and I flew the cycle–sort’ve–closing the deal on our status in 2016. We had a double open-jaw flight from Europe to Brazil where we flew Economy, Euro Business, International Business, and International First. The economy part was tough for me. It took a lot, we burned many more miles than we earned, just to get to and from Europe. On the way home though, I did get Schnitzel, but you didn’t have any part in that one.
 
Then you changed the AAdvantage Program. Like United 3 years before, you instituted Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD)s. You changed the status paradigm from: “hey, you love to fly us, and you fly a ton, so we’ll reward you.” to “what have you done for me lately?” American, you went from the bigger, wider, global view of loyalty, to a more transactional view. As Gary Leff has said (though I can’t find an appropriate link), I am not my fare, but you now believe I am. 
 
I stuck around in 2017. I had my Executive Platinum status anyway, but I’ve found myself wandering. I don’t feel like I’ve cheated on you with Southwest, after all, we have the companion pass, and if you value me by my fare, well, maybe I should value you based on your cost. Southwest was cheaper. 
 
I still flew a few dozen flights on your metal, with varying experiences. You should really take care of that. I can tell in the first few seconds on a plane whether it is a Legacy US Airways aircraft, or a Legacy American Airlines aircraft. Wait, I’m not so sure of that last statement, because it seems like so many more aircraft look much more like Legacy US Airways. A lack of personal In Flight Entertainment (IFE). Perhaps I should look to see how many ovens are onboard? We know US Airways had fewer. Really, American, your aircraft don’t really pass muster compared to your competitors.
American Airlines
I won’t even let myself get started on your award chart. Yes, you devalued it in 2015, but the amount of saver space you release now-a-days is quite simply embarrassing. The joke within my circles now is that your “lowest level standard” space is the new saver. Every time I look for awards, I feel like I’m being slapped in the face. Another example where you demonstrate that loyalty means nothing to you!

The one shining grace of American Airlines

The single aspect that I will miss the most about having Executive Platinum status, is your amazing twitter team. I cannot say enough about the cadre of individuals that you have on your twitter team. I’ve been able to upgrade flights while wandering the streets of Taipei, I’ve been able to do things that would normally take 20-120 minutes waiting on the phone, with but a single direct message. If there is a single area that you have continued to do well since the merger, American, it is your twitter team. I wish I could give each and every team member a big hug. They are amazing, and they are your greatest strength.
 
But let’s consider that statement for a second. American, you are an airline, a transport company. Your greatest strength is your twitter team. Really, they are that great, but consider how many other aspects of your business that you are neglecting! We’ve discussed your woeful aircraft interiors. Some don’t even have power, and this is the 21st century. 

Conclusion

I haven’t made the final decision. There are still 3 months left in the year. Perhaps I’m naive, but maybe you will see the error of your ways. I am holding out hope. But, if you don’t, I have a wonderful JetBlue Mosaic challenge that I plan to make. I’ll also be looking into other status match and challenge offers. I’m not sure, but it could be refreshing to be a free agent again. 
 
But really, as I finish off this brief introspection. The saddest part for me, is that we had so much together. I can’t count the number of amazing experiences that we shared together. You were the first US Airline to take on the 777-300ER, and boy did we enjoy it together. To Hong Kong so many times, as well as a flight to Sao Paulo. My only regret there is that I never had an espresso onboard. But you have so much potential American, I truly believe that. But, you, who has one of the oldest Frequent Flyer programs, need to remember those foundations. They economy won’t always be as it is now. Soon, instead of worrying about Voluntary Denied Boarding (VDB) candidates, you’ll be concerned whether you’ll have enough paying passengers to make a flight profitable. That is when loyalty matters most, and what you are doing now, is poisoning the well.
 
So please, consider the value of loyalty before it is too late for myself and so many others.

 
Cheers,
Trevor

Don’t Forget About the Islands Ravaged by Hurricane Irma

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A trend that I and I think many others noticed about the reporting of Hurricane Irma, was a borderline myopic focus on the Continental United States. The news and weather reporting channels didn’t really spend much time reporting on the dire impacts of Irma before or after the storm hit, when compared with the virtual nonstop coverage of the Southeastern United States.
 
I’m not sure if this is a general trend, but at least one friend sees this annually:
 
Hurricane Irma
 
The fact remains, before Hurricane Irma hit the US, it ravaged the US and British Virgin Islands, as well as St Maarten. <verify St M isn’t part of above>

St Maarten

Many aviation geeks (AvGeeks) know St. Maarten for the famed Maho Beach, where you can see aircraft as large as the KLM 747 land at St Maarten’s Princess Julianna International Airport, about as up close and personal as it gets.
 
https://youtu.be/dA5qYrboTUE?list=PLczZhe3ctjNJEet0APfdx4PY-rz7Lt7A2
 
Unfortunately, Maho Beach is a shadow of its former self, many buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged. It will take a lot for the island to get back to its former glory. I’m sure it will happen.
 
NPR has a pretty striking satellite view of before and after the hurricane.
 
If you want to donate to St Maarten’s recovery, here is a resource I’ve found.

The US Virgin Islands

St Thomas as the other US Virgin Islands were also badly damaged from Hurricane Irma. The US sent the Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos to St. Thomas with supplies, the US Navy has 3 vessels in the area as well, as the main hospital is out of commission due to the storm.
 
The Coast Guard did a aerial survey which you can see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YE7M_lwkqQ
 
Marriott even evacuated guests via a chartered ship before Hurricane Jose rolled through.
 
If you would like to support the efforts for the US Virgin Island’s recover, you can use the official site.

The British Virgin Islands

Also heavily hammered by Hurricane Irma were the British Virgin Islands, to include Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island. Branson braved the storm in the main cellar of the Necker Island resort, with family and team members, however he came out of that cellar to a fairly rough sight.
 
His son shared images which were picked up by the mainstream media.
Hurricane Irma
 
Branson has been advocating for recovery efforts, and coordinating with the United Kingdom to send aid.
 
You can support the British Virgin Island recovery via this link.

Wrapping Up – Hurricane Irma’s impact on the Caribbean 

This post is not to belittle the damage, destruction, and death that happened in the Southeastern United States. Rather my intent is to remind us all, that others were hit just as hard–if not harder, by Hurricane Irma. A fact that has not been as prominently covered by traditional media outlets.

The Go Around Principle

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Josh Waitzkin, interviewed in Tom Ferriss’ the Tools of Titans  highlights one of the most important concepts in life. Succinctly put, he calls this the Go Around principle.

What is the Go Around Principle?

Josh describes the foundation of the principle as when his young son attempted to enter a door to their Martha’s Vinyard cottage but it was locked. Josh would tell him to “Go around.” On the surface, this is really simple, right? But translate that to other aspects of your life. It’s no longer about trying different doors or windows of a house, it’s now about problem solving.

Three types of people

In my experience, as you look at problem solving, there are three types of people. The brick breaker, the Go Arounder, and the settler.

The Brick Breaker

The Brick Breaker is the type of person that runs runs into a brick wall and keeps hitting it, determined to power through. It may not be the most elegant solution, but by golly, the brick breaker will break through that wall, or die trying.
 
In the miles and points world, this is the person who books the rule breaker award if a saver award isn’t available for that trip to Asia or Australia. This is also the person that sets up tons of ExpertFlyer Alerts so they can get the saver award eventually, but will get that specific route.

The Go Arounder

The Go Arounder, is much like described by Josh Waitzkin. This is the person that finds another way around or over top that brick wall.
 
In the miles and points world, this is the person who routes via Europe to Asia or via Asia to Australia. The trip might be longer but they got the award for the saver level and met the objective of getting to their destination in their desired class of service. It may not be the most elegant solution but it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. They might even be the type that books a less than ideal itinerary and then when the desired space opens up, they make the change to get that truly elegant itinerary–like Lufthansa First Class.
 
The Go Around Principle
 
The Go Arounder may be the type that flies to Asia via Europe more often than direct. But they always do it in First Class.

The Settler

The Settler is unfortunately just as it sounds. They run into the brick wall, usually bounce back, and take what they can get. It’s too hard to break through the wall, and climbing or going around the wall will take too much effort and time. Getting to the other side of that brick wall wasn’t really that important anyway.
 
In the miles and points world, this is the type of person that if they don’t see their desired direct itinerary, and they decide to postpone or cancel their trip. If they can’t fly on the non-stop from Washington-Dulles to Dubai, then they won’t go, despite Washington-Dulles to Abu Dhabi being available and less than an hour away from Dubai.

Conclusion 

 I think the Go Around principle is one of the most important lessons one can learn. It is applicable in our everyday lives; whether you are trying to repair the kitchen sink, encounter a problem at work, or are planning a trip. 
 
Hopefully you can be a go arounder from early in life, because it is truly a lesson that will help you go far. That said, you can be each of the three described above at various instances in your life. I personally always aim to be a go arounder, however, there are sometimes that you just can’t negotiate. For example, if you want to visit the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, there just is no other way. 

Travel is Changing, Specifically the Passenger Experience

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I don’t want to be a pessimist, but it seems to me that with a lot of the news going around over the past month or so, Travel is Changing and it is not for the better. I think most of this centers around the changing Passenger Experience (PaxEx). 

Travel is Changing by the Government’s Hand

The Passenger Experience is under attack, ironically, by as much the United States & United Kingdom Governments’ hand, as by the airlines’ actions. For example, we saw the initial Electronics Ban, which bans electronics larger than your smartphone from flying in the cabin from Middle Eastern airports. I had thought there might be a silver lining for travel hackers but that hasn’t panned out.
 
Instead, we are seeing rumors of an expansion of the Electronics Ban (in fact, Delta was ready last week) to westbound flights from Europe to the US. This is painful, since most westbound flights are during the day, usually during prime business hours. This will hurt business travelers and leisure travelers alike.  
 
This is of course in the name of security, and unfortunately, it is challenging to know whether its just being used as an excuse or if there is a justifiable reason. The challenge with security is that we never really know unless it fails.

The Airlines Aren’t Helping Matters

The Airlines aren’t helping improve the Passenger Experience like they used to. Just this week, Delta Airlines announced that they will reduce the size of the premium cabin on their 777’s, and add more economy seats. Other airlines have embraced 10-abreast seating in the 777 in droves, including British Airways and Cathay Pacific. 
 
One area that airlines are adding–for the most part– is Premium Economy. I would however argue, that airlines argue that this gives passengers more choice. I would argue that this is a euphemism.
 
At the same time, flights are flying with more seats filled than we’ve seen in more than a decade. Airlines are making more money, well, other than American Airlines. 
 
Passengers are Responding Poorly
 
I won’t go so far as to argue a causal relationship between the above changes and the outburst of social media, news, and blog stories on passengers either being treated poorly, behaving badly, or both.
 
But the fact remains, #BumpGate, when Dr. Dao was forcibly removed from a United Aircraft, was perhaps the inflection point. Since that time, we’ve seen reports of a soon-to-be-married couple ejected from an aircraft (they were at fault, by the way), we’ve even seen fist fights among passengers break out on a Southwest Flight and more. 

 We’ve even seen issues in the airport itself, specifically Spirit Airlines Passengers in Fort Lauderdale, after Spirit took a different strategy in negotiating with its Pilots Union. 
 
In most of these cases, the blame is shared between airlines and passengers, but the fact remains. Police–or their proxies–have been called to take on a greater role in air transportation, and it is not a good thing.

Conclusion

All sides have an opportunity to change the direction that we are headed in. The Electronics Ban could be more tailored, or 
 
 

Early Freddie Awards Winners and more to come

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I’m heading up to the Freddie Awards later today, with a slight deviation to last year, a couple of early Freddie Awards winners were announced ahead of the actual event.

Some facts about the Freddie Awards

The Freddie, as I noted in my post urging folks to vote, is the opportunity for frequent travelers to vote for their favorite loyalty programs–both airline and hotel. This year there were 4,203,657 visits, which accounted for 25,064,593 total ballots. To put a finer point on that, over 4.2 million frequent travelers voted for their favorite loyalty programs. Interestingly enough, only 43.2% of the voters were from the US, which I think makes the non-Americas awards even more interesting.

Early Freddie Awards Winners

This year, the 210 Awards were announced early. Here’s a brief description of what the 210 Awards are:

The 210 Awards are a​wards given to the highest-rated program/best average ranking among programs ranked by fewer than 10% of the voters—sort of an “up and coming” award. These winners are programs to watch as they gain more awareness from members—voters who know about them give them extremely high marks. These awards are determined by an equation whereas other Freddie Awards are all decided upon a ‘value vote’. None of the awards are decided by popularity which makes the Freddie Awards unique in that the winners are all well deserved—not always the largest or most popular.

The winners announced were:

Americas
Airline: Avianca LifeMiles
Hotel: Le Club Accorhotels

Europe
Airline: TAP Victoria
Hotel: Choice Privileges

Asia
Airline: ANA Mileage Club
Hotel: Trident Hotels Trident Privilege

My Thoughts

I’m not terribly surprised to see Avianca LifeMiles – they continue to be an emerging powerhouse for Star Alliance awards. I remember the first time I saw an Avianca aircraft, I commented to my wife “Wow, they really are an airline!” having previously had the feeling that they were primarily a loyalty program. Interestingly enough, Avianca had won the 210 award last year.

I’m more surprised by the rest of the winners. Le Club Accorhotels at first surprised me, but I’m wondering in hindsight (because I just couldn’t remember) if Fairmont fell under Accorhotels given they acquired Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissohotels at the end of 2015.

I really don’t have much to make of TAP, Choice, ANA or Trident Hotels. I’ll definitely be digging into those programs more in the future!

What do you think? Are any of these up and coming programs known to you? 

 

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