News and notes from around the interweb:
- A 747 Carried 2 Beluga Whales From China To Iceland
- Norwegian is looking to partner with other airlines to provide connecting feed which also adds cost and complexity to the model.
Copyright william87 / 123RF Stock Photo - Hyatt is launching a new brand in China I guess UrCove isn’t as bad as Explorist, Bonvoy, or the new BB&T-Suntrust bank name Truist.
- American has a new tool to solicit bids from volunteers for bump (voluntary denied boarding) compensation which helps the airline control its costs. That will expand to become available at AA.com “starting later this summer.”
- Garuda Indonesia will let you use miles to buy up to higher elite status (use Google translate). A non-status member can upgrade to Silver for just 4000 miles, and Garuda is a Citi transfer partner.
- I thought that settling strikes would mean the end of Marriott housekeeping leafleting rooms criticizing ‘Make a Green Choice’ but it’s apparently still going on.
@garyleff on the floor under the door upon checkin at Aloft MSP pic.twitter.com/HSNwRLNu34
— Matt Baylow (@MattBaylow) June 21, 2019
4000 Garuda miles doesn’t work to upgrade even to the base SkyTeam Elite status, since it only takes a person from Garuda Blue to Silver. Garuda Silver status means nothing to the SkyTeam alliance in terms of elite status. Garuda Gold is 20,000 miles for those with Garuda Silver status, but that just gets the base SkyTeam Elite status.
53k miles to go from nothing to Garuda Platinum? That’s less than $26.5k of spend on the Citi card for some. Could be worth it for the SkyTeam ElitePlus status.
Green Choice should be refused mainly due to Marriott decimating the point value of it
Unions suck. They are legalized extortion, nothing more. If your skills aren’t valued in the free market, then go get some training or go back to school. Extorting companies to force them to pay you more than you are worth is not the answer. These kind of efforts to undermine their customer relationship (as with AA mechanics) should result in termination on the spot.
The whale story is hilarious. So environmentalists believe humans should cease use of all fossil fuels, but whales don’t have to?
They are legalized extortion, nothing extra. If your abilties aren’t valued in the free market, then go get some education or pass back to school. Extorting organizations to pressure them to pay you more than you’re worth isn’t the solution.
That Garuda link, when translated, indicates that you can reach the highest status for 53,000 miles. For that, you get these SkyTeam Elite Plus benefits:
Guaranteed full-fare Y-class reservation on sold-out long-haul flights, at least 24 hours prior to departure.
Access to airport lounges worldwide, whatever the class of travel, for members in possession of a boarding pass, accompanied by a guest.
I think that for some people, it might be worth it just for the Delta/Air France/KLM lounge access.