Good morning, and welcome to today's community discussion thread! Today's posts will appear here throughout the day, but this thread is for going off-topic. Did you love/hate something about today's coverage? Are you tracking other news I missed? Or, do you just have a general question about rewards travel? This is the place for your wandering thoughts.
Today's posts on OMAAT:
- Delta’s Riyadh Flights Are So Empty That The Airline Is Basically Giving Away Seats
- Captain Kate McCue Resigns From Four Seasons Yachts, “Retires” From Cruising
- Which Airlines Offer Pajamas In Business Class?
- The Ryan Walker & Amanvari Situation: Aman’s Silence Is Deafening
- Finagled Ultimate Rewards, Stolen Luggage, And A P2 Left Behind: Don’t Stop Belizin’
- Crazed Fans Spot Celebrity At Bangkok Airport, Leading To Chaos, Denied Boarding, Racism
- American Adds Premium Economy Upgrades For Elites, Ends Double Upgrades To Business Class
- The Six Continents Challenge, And A Life-Risking Mattress Run
- How I Beat The WestJet Strike (And Virgin Atlantic’s Cancellation Fees)
- American AAdvantage Cash & Miles Awards Coming Soon: Will They Be A Good Deal, Though?
- Major (Positive) OMAAT Changes Are Live, And They’re All About Community
- Buy World Of Hyatt Points For 20% Off (2.08 Cents Per Point): Worth It?
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card 150K Bonus Points + $250 Statement Credit Offer
Daily threads stay open for a week, so it's never too late to jump into a recent conversation.
Morning to everyone! First Community Stories should go live today, and the first will be from our very own @jeremyonemileatatime-com, so keep an eye out for that! 🙂
Some insights into my background and take on points and miles, for those who asked/might be interested.
@jeremyonemileatatime-com I guess yet another reason why airtags might be helpful in luggage!
So where does this article actually appear? Did I just miss it on the main site?
And do you pay a mortgage with Bilt? Genuinely always curious for more mortgage/Bilt data points. Just feels like this is still a card in beta test mode - who is going to sign up for it in Q3/Q4 just to earn a bunch of Bilt Cash that will immediately expire and mostly not roll over to next year? Maybe I'll finally "get it" in 2027... we will see.
@peter_ you better believe the first thing I did when I got back home was grab AirTags for the luggage and passports......
We are keeping the reader stories on the homepage under Ben's stories. There's a dedicated carousel; screenshot attached. We'll see how engagement goes and may move things around based on feedback.
As for Bilt, I do have a mortgage set up with them. It's been a painless experience for me, but I know there were some speed bumps for some with the transition. My only gripe has been the UX for seeing authorized user spend.
In terms of Bilt Cash, I don't get hung up with having extra at the end of the year. The Bilt points earning is what I'm after. Bilt Cash is nice to have when it works out, imo. That said, I think you're right - there's more value in having the card for a full year than grabbing it in Q3/Q4, unless you're putting enough on the card to use all of the 3x accelerators, but I think that gets impractical pretty quickly.
@jeremyonemileatatime-com I clicked on the attachment (the png showing where people can find the reader stories) and got a pop-up notice that says "You are not permitted to view this attachment." No option to download it either.
@jallan That has been adjusted - you should be able to access it now. Thanks for reporting!
Does anyone have any thoughts as to what changes Marriott may make to their credit cards after renewing their Chase/Amex agreements? Is there a wish list? I always felt the earnings rates were very weak
@jjspring It's a great question. As I see it, there's the topic of what could make the cards more profitable for Marriott, and then the question of what could make them more lucrative for consumers, and those are two very different directions.
I totally agree with you that the return on spending on the cards just isn't lucrative, since 2x Bonvoy points is worth maybe 1.4% cash back. I can't imagine they'd materially improve the points earning opportunities, since that would worsen margins, and I think Marriott is counting on having a large percentage of customers being brand loyal, but not necessarily rational in terms of maximizing value.
So, where could we see growth? I wouldn't be surprised to see a premium business card introduced, essentially the business equivalent of the Bonvoy Brilliant. Furthermore, maybe Marriott will start making it easier to earn status with credit card spending? For example, maybe the Bonvoy Brilliant will offer Platinum status for being a cardmember, Titanium status for spending X amount, etc.
Anyway, just a couple of guesses, and I imagine we'll find out more soon. What's your take?
great commentary! I would like to see a premium night introduced at 30K spend, SUA's awarded for spend, and maybe two elite nights for every 5K spend. It may be possible for them to lower ambassador spend for cardholders as well. Why not follow delta's lead and offer a rewards night discount for cardholders as well.
How is everyone's experience with Southwest these days? It seems like they can't make their 40 minute turn times work anymore because of the new baggage policies. See their on time performance https://www.oag.com/nam-on-time-performance-data I have been on 6 flights in the last 2 weeks and 4 of them were delayed. There didn't appear to be downline weather or other issues. And even the flights I was on were not turned in 40 minutes. It seems like they lost some of their hustle.
@david-in-so-cal I pretty much avoid them unless they're dramatically cheaper. Had to fly LAX-ELP last month. Ended up going with AA (American Eagle) as it was about the same price, but the non-stop times were more convenient and AA flew an Embraer in a 2-2 configuration which was better than SWA's 737s.
@jallan They pretty much own intra-California flights so I end up on them often on short flights. Its even worse when a 1 hour flight is delayed by over and hour or more. I mostly avoid them for longer flights especially now that they lost their magic.
@david-in-so-cal Ouch, that's really rough for Southwest, especially as the airline doesn't have quite as much service to congested airports as some other carriers. This seemingly all comes down to struggles with turn times, so it's unfortunate they weren't anticipating that.
@lucky Its rough because they pretty much own intra-California routes so we don't have much choice on those. I think the only viable strategy right now is to try to take a morning flight before the delays stack up. I am guessing they will start padding their schedules more to accomodate. I wonder if Elliott had worked that into their math on the cost/benefit of charging for bags.
@david-in-so-cal Most of my flying is Bay Area to LA area (while avoiding SFO/LAX as much as possible), so I end up on SWA a ton. Since the changes I have had a ton of flights that took off 5-20 mins late, almost always due to inbound aircraft arriving late, but haven't had any long delays despite most of my flights being in the evening. In my experience gate agents have been proactive about making group 8 get gate check tags prior to boarding on the -700s, and the new bins in the -800s and MAX 8s have been big enough to accommodate all bags even on full flights. I think they may end up adding block time but I haven't seen major delays due to quick turns, at least yet.
@david-in-so-cal Sorry to hear that, I am a very infrequent SWA flyer but when I have to go ONT-LAS next month there is not a lot of choice, given that I am unwilling to drive around LA to another airport due to the awful traffic.
Hopefully they can get their game together and fix this issue.
MSP — The FAA has lifted a ground stop at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, following a brief stoppage of incoming and outgoing flights on Thursday afternoon due to a "regional FAA equipment outage."
@beleza That story is accurate but also seriously downplays what happened. xJonNYC has a good rundown of what happened on his Twitter feed.
Thought I would share some kind of funny meal choices on my upcoming Qatar Airways flights IAD-DOH and DOH-IAD.
Light Meal IAD-DOH:
@chris_ Thanks for sharing. Yeah, that's... unique. I consistently see Indian dishes on QR, given the carrier's traffic patterns, but the more western options are surprising, and rather specific. Hope you have a great trip, sounds like fun!
@chris_ It's not that long ago that The South started at the Potomac. At this point, one could still argue that a nontrivial portion of the IAD catchment area for long-haul is still Southern (roughly south of the Rappahannock).
@levi-2 Fair enough, but Brunswick Stew and shrimp po boy come from far more south than this region.
Random question - am using this for the first time so I hope I am using this right! Is there any news on KLMs A350s? There was a recent set of news that they had been delayed :(. Also any idea the biz product they're using. Think they're going for the same Stelia Opera seat as on AFs A350s but not sure?
@george6297 Welcome, and yes, you're absolutely using it right. 🙂 Indeed, it seems they've been delayed a bit longer. It's the same seat AF is using on its A350s, but apparently the pitch is slightly different, and this is causing issues with regulators. Covered part of this here:
https://onemileatatime.com/news/klm-airbus-a350-business-class-empty/
Hopefully they'll be flying soon enough with interiors fully certified...
@lucky awww shame!! regulators strike again!! interesting that even though the same seat is in use the pitch difference means that it needs to be recertified? thank you for the response Ben and am loving the new changes!!
@george6297 Thanks! 🙂 Yeah, it surprised me as well, I figured the same seat being certified on the same aircraft type shouldn't be that complicated. But I've heard different stories. One suggested is was that the seat finishes were slightly different and that caused issues, and another is that regulators have a changed interpretation of certification requirements.