The past two weeks have seen a ton of news in the airline and frequent flyer space, so much that even after we cut out a bunch of stuff we wanted to talk about we still managed to ramble on longer than ever before. Sorry about that. This week’s episode is near an hour long but hopefully still interesting and informative. Among the topics we cover:
- United is reported to be installing slimline seats in their 737 aircraft, following the work they’re currently doing on their Airbus fleet. Many hate the new seats while some think it will be an upgrade. The winners, however, are the pair of snarky plays on the new “friendly” advertising campaign (Image; Animation). Well played, gentlemen. Well played.
- BA is finally flying their A380 on a long-haul route (LHR-LAX) and Seth was on the inaugural flight. Booked in coach but spent a bit of time in first thanks to a listener. Drinking a bottle of champagne mid-flight certainly helps the time pass.
- Southwest is devaluing their award values starting next March (WGA fares will now be 70 points/$ up from 60) and the reaction from the blogosphere was quite entertaining. Some think it is a huge deal while others couldn’t care less. Fun to see who is at which end of the spectrum there.
- JetBlue announced the marketing behind their new premium cabin offering, “Mint.” There’s also some details on the food and amenity kit they’ll be offering, plus the pricing. It is going to be way cheaper than the competition. It’ll be interesting to see how long that lasts.
- Delta is deploying electronic flight bags on the newest Microsoft Surface tablets rather than an iOS or Android platform. Likely due to ease of central management, though hard to know for certain.
- One of our listeners (Hi, Josh!) asked if we’d do Etihad F + AA Y for a trip or C/J all the way through. We all chose the split while most everyone else who responded to the conversation on Twitter chose the all-biz option. And we’ve each got our reasons.
- Finally, for those of you still listening for info about earning points, US has their 100% share miles promo back the first half of this month and LifeMiles has one, too. JetBlue has a 50% bonus on buying points and Club Carlson is doing a 50% bonus, too.
And this:
A few other topics mixed in as well, mostly us picking on United for not being so great lately.
Enjoy the show!
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