News and notes from around the interweb:
- Mark Ross-Smith‘s loyalty program predictions for 2021: Loyalty programs will add elite tiers and benefits, and since the programs are worth so much you could see one buy an airline (!) as well as non-airline businesses
- Etihad may shrink to 30% of its former size based on the number of cabin crew they may employ in the future.
- Tourists are flocking to Wuhan
- New York LaGuardia airport now offers free Covid testing
- Final Destination in Sight for $8B LaGuardia Modernization
- Bankrupt Avianca has bought back 19.9% of LifeMiles, bringing its stake to 89.9% at a cost of $195 million ($26.5 million in cash and $168.5 million in loans). That’s a 13% discount to what they got for the stake in 2015. (HT: Loyalty Lobby)
- Four U.S. airports seeing traffic growth compared to last year:
There are airports in the U.S. that are back (and even beyond) 2019 levels of traffic: Vail, Jackson Hole and Steamboat Springs. https://t.co/hrmj0GenHO (via @miller22) pic.twitter.com/rzzqGuoVdq
— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) October 29, 2020
On the loyalty program predictions, the biggest miss was the potential impact of the elections. We’ve seen the role politics played in Debit Cards and loyalty programs, I would imagine this election could also play a significant role in what loyalty programs look like in 2021 and moving forward.
If anybody is reading a bias or a “point” into this please move along, I just think one way or the other the election could have a big impact and surprised it wasn’t mentioned or taken into account at all.
“Final Destination in Sight”
Poor wording. I pictured a crane moving a huge flat pane of glass into position, only to have it slip and fall and crush someone below. Maybe it’s too close to Halloween :-\