What’s on our minds this week? Lots of fun stuff, it turns out.
- Big changes are coming to US passports in 2016 – New Design and No Additional Pages – http://rapidtravelchai.boardingarea.com/2014/10/05/us-passports-in-2016-no-additional-pages/
- Why do all the bloggers hate on UA so much? Because they can, I suppose, though we talk about it in more detail than that
- Southwest is morphing into being no different then any of the other majors, or maybe they’re already there
- Delta is cutting back on how many MR points you can transfer in a year and that hits the American Express Membership Rewards partnership – http://blog.wandr.me/2014/10/cut-delta-membership-rewards-american-express-relationship/
- Seth has a new Hotel Reward Search Tool online for comparing reward and revenue rates; it is pretty cool
- Fozz got hosed on an American Airlines ticketing situation
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Not sure if I’m one of the bloggers Fozz categorizes as a United hater. For me, being IAD-based, the only real benefit I see with United over their competitors is the route network out of IAD. And, as they’ve shrunk, it’s less of an advantage. But, I think all 3 of you touched on the most relevant point. The ranking of the big 3 is largely situational. Out of IAD, I’m well over 95% upgrades cleared on AA as an EXP, while I’m around 50% on UA.
But, the more I’ve started flying IAD-LAX the more close calls I have. Over the past 5 years,I’m guessing virtually every upgrade I’ve missed (a small sample) was on this route. If my travel patterns continue to run in that direction, I’ll likely miss more upgrades and become slightly less happy with AA. I don’t think I’ll get better treatment elsewhere, though.
Good show, guys.
You’re not a hater, Pizzaman, though I still wonder about the way you calculate the non-stop v connecting time benefits. 😉