News and notes from around the interweb:
- Field report from an American AAdvantage elite member successfully getting his elite upgrade at check-in on US Airways. The new reciprocal upgrades began yesterday.
- I hope these folks aren’t catering my next airline meal.
- Washington National airport is studying expansion in a way that would allow it to put all of US Airways and American under a single roof in a new terminal. Currently the airlines are on two separate piers, and also bus passengers out to regional jets.
- American Express Membership Rewards is running a 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines through June 23. I don’t see a reason to do this, although they do have a decent offering to Hawaii if you live in one of their gateway cities.
Their best award is US – London roundtrip in business class on Virgin Atlantic without fuel surcharges for 125,000 miles from the US East Coast. That’s the same price Delta charges but Delta will give you connecting flights (eg beyond London on their European partners). And ANA charges fewer miles but adds fuel surcharges, the mileage savings can be worth it and you don’t have to talk to Hawaiian agents.
- Silvercar starts taking reservations in a couple of weeks for rentals in Miami starting mid-July.
- A new Government Accountability Office study finds that the US airline industry did not become less competitive between 2007 and 2012. The study was before the US Airways-American merger, but its methodology would be unlikely to alter the conclusion if the merger were a part of the time period studied. (HT: Carrie C)
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I wouldn’t pay much attention to the GAO study. The GAO has essentially no expertise in analyzing competition issues.
I agree with Rob. I think I’m gonna have to believe my own lyin’ eyes instead of a whitewash from the GAO trying to excuse the government’s complete failure to protect the consumer from industry consolidation.
They also found in the study prices went down on most airline tickets and customer service as well as benefits vastly improved/ increased as a result of these mergers Extra leg room and onboard amenities in every class of service and the return of no luggage fees was another clear advantage of these mergers.
The most interesting aspect was their frequent program study where all redemption seats were made more readily available and the cost to consumers to redeem went significantly down as well requiring many fewer miles.
Unfortunately later on it was found that the study was actually undertaken on planet Mars by folks on drugs
Regretfully the study was also finished on April Fools Day so there may be some inaccuracies reported in it