May 07 2015

GringoLoco sends me to this Los Angeles Times article on the political fight over how the value of aircraft are assessed for California property tax purposes. That’s right… airlines (including cargo operators) pay about $80 million per year in business property taxes. This is based on the value of the aircraft and the amount of time the planes are in the state, and the taxes are paid to 11 different counties. County tax assessors value the aircraft, and estimate the time each aircraft spends in their county. …one “lead county” [is designated] to appraise the fleets of each firm. The lead county crunches the numbers for its assigned carriers — Los Angeles County handles American Airlines and FedEx, for example — and distributes its findings to the other counties, which calculate the time each plane…

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May 06 2015

A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.

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May 06 2015

ISIS has re-opened the Ninawa International Hotel in Mosul. Isis has purportedly opened its own luxury hotel in Iraq’s second city Mosul for members of the extremist group to stay in while visiting. The property is well-regarded on TripAdvisor. ISIS has invested in refresh and renovation. Cleaning staff are washing windows, as well as painting, decorating and gardening. The black flag of the Islamic State was raised in the forecourt of the hotel and coloured balloons were released in celebration. The 262-room hotel is thought to be the first accommodation of its type in the self-proclaimed caliphate and will also cater for weddings. In ISIS style, the building’s elaborate exterior decorations have all been taken down, the ballrooms boarded up and the bars now alcohol-free. Photos from Twitter: No word on what it takes to…

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May 06 2015

American Airlines sent out a press release this morning that I found rather confusing. It begins, American Airlines is putting entertainment options in the hands of more customers by launching its streaming video service on more than 200 additional aircraft in its domestic mainline fleet. They go on to talk about ‘seat-back video’ and ‘streaming’ together. American isn’t going to add seat back video to their fleet of MD80s with early generation gogo internet, those planes are on the way out. American’s new A319s and A321s come equipped with seat back video already. The new 737s entering the fleet do as well. Here’s the new American interior standard for domestic narrowbodies: New Boeing 737 Airbus A319 Airbus A321T The press release gets even more confusing, talking about not just streaming and seat back but even…

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May 06 2015

Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a purchased miles bonus through May 29 — a minimum of 100% bonus for everyone, but 120% for residents of certain countries. If your account is registered outside of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States it’s a 120% bonus instead. That would bring down the cost from 1.65 cents per mile to 1.5 cents per mile. The 20% discount doesn’t materially change the value proposition. It can be a good deal with a specific use in mind for the miles, and you can buy up to 75,000 miles (plus bonus — so receiving 150,000 for US residents). I don’t like investing in LifeMiles speculatively though. In the past they’ve tweaked some award prices without notice. When Avianca joined…

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May 05 2015

Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently.

This morning I received an email offering me a targeted promotion. The email didn’t tell me what I would get.

It’s interesting they’re imploring me to ‘come back’. I haven’t stayed with Starwood in a month.

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May 05 2015

A memo was sent to all Target stores stating that — effective tomorrow — credit cards may no longer be used to load funds onto a REDcard.

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost — the card may still be very useful.

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