United Eases Elite Qualifying Requirements
United Airlines will make re-qualifying for 2021 elite status less onerous for its members, announcing reduced qualification standards and a head start without even stepping on an airplane.
United is reducing the number of Premier Qualifying Points and Premier Qualifying Flights needed to qualify at each level by roughly 25%. Additionally, the airline is starting each elite member off with a deposit of 25% of the necessary PQP to requalify for the elite level the member most recently qualified for. Consider this the loyalty program equivalent of getting on its knees and begging. But wait, there’s more.
The first three revenue flights taken in 2021 between January 1 and March 31 will come with a 50% PQP bonus for non-elite members and a 100% bonus for elite members. The airline is also extending all PlusPoints that were set to expire on or after January 1 for an additional six months.
United is confident that it will not swell its elite ranks too much with this new policy since it’s confusing enough to weed out most of the elite population. That will leave an elite few who have both flown enough and understood the requirements enough to be elite in 2021.
Southwest Adds Sarasota
Southwest Airlines is adding another new city to its route map, the 10th destination it has added since the onset of the pandemic. The airline will begin service to Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida (SRQ) in the first quarter of 2021.
Sarasota will be the airline’s 10th destination in Florida, including the eight it currently serves plus Miami, to which Southwest will begin service later this week. Sarasota is expected to be another destination on the airline’s route map that comes with magical healing powers. Dozens of passengers request early boarding due to needing extra time, but they typically are magically healed by the time the plane lands at its destination, no longer needing any assistance. For reasons yet to be explained, it’s service to Florida that sees more cases of these magical flights than anywhere else served by Southwest.
Southwest hasn’t yet announced what cities it will serve from Sarasota, but the expectation is that it will serve at least one of its main “hubs” — even if Southwest won’t call them hubs — likely Baltimore, Chicago/Midway, Houston/Hobby, or wherever it can find the most AARP members.
JetBlue Extends Seat Blocking Policy One Final Time
JetBlue Airways will return to selling 100% of the seats onboard its aircraft beginning with flights on January 8. In the meantime, it will go with the highly-questionable plan of continuing to restrict capacity without providing the middle-seat block benefit that people actually care about.
Through December 1, the airline will sell 70% of the seats aboard its aircraft, and then from December 2 through January 7, JetBlue will cap sales at 85% of available seats. Despite the sales cap, it will not guarantee any specific empty seats. This completely defeats the potential marketing benefit of an empty middle, and it will only serve to block 15% of capacity during one of the few times in recent memory that JetBlue has a chance of filling those seats.
JetBlue joins Alaska and Delta as the only U.S. carriers blocking seats through the new year.
Israir has Multiple Bidders
At least six groups have placed bids for the chance to end up holding the rose and the right to buy Israir as the carrier is looking for suitors to win its heart pocketbook.
Of the six bids, Arkia Israel Airlines submitted the largest cash outlay, which included a proposal for a merger between the two airlines. The other aviation-based bid came from Tami Mozes Borovitz, who recently lost controlling interest in El Al earlier this fall and is wandering the desert looking for his next venture.
The price of the bids ranged from a high of $38.4 million from Arkia along with the merger to Mozes Borovitz’s $16.9 million offer that brought up the rear. German-Israeli entrepreneur Moti Ben-Moshe offered the highest individual bid, coming it at just under $30 million, with a life-time pass to high holiday services at Temple Beth Shalom in Boca Raton included for all current Israir shareholders.
The airline currently employs 413 people, with roughly half on unpaid leave right now. It has a fleet of seven aircraft (four owned, three leased) and is currently operating 44 weekly flights from Tel Aviv, 30 of those to Eilat, Israel (ETM).
Hawaiian Announces Mileage Redemption for Virus Testing
Hawaiian Airlines is now the first carrier in the United States to allow its members to redeem miles for pre-travel virus testing. Members of the airline’s HawaiianMiles program can now redeem 14,000 miles for a pre-flight mail-in test valid for entry into Hawai’i.
The offer, which is a horrendous value for the miles, is only available for a limited time — which might be its most redeeming quality. An at-home test kit is currently priced at $119 per person if you opt to spend cash instead of miles.
If you are headed to Hawai’i and happen to have exactly 14,000 miles in your HawaiianMiles account that you’re never going to use, then in that case it could be worth it. The value goes up if you use your miles to save the $119 in order to purchase exactly that much worth of macadamia nuts at an ABC Store once in Hawai’i.
Airline Potpourri
- Alitalia is resuming service to both Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo next month. Both flights will operate once per week if the airline feels like it.
- Emirates lost $3.8 billion for the six months ending in September, its first loss in over 30 years.
- Frontier has no plans to use its A321XLR to fly to Europe. For now.
- JetBlue and Aruba have agreed to a partnership where the island will accept the PCR test offered by JetBlue to its passengers to allow for quarantine-free travel to Aruba with a negative test.
- Lufthansa agreed on a crisis package with its ground staff protecting their jobs through the end of 2021 in exchange for reduced compensation.
- SWISS plans on grounding its fleet of 28 A320s for the winter.
- United is now using new Clorox electrostatic sprayers to disinfect airport terminals.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I read that by law you have to turn your headlights on while driving when it’s raining in Sweden. How in the world am I supposed to know if it’s raining in Sweden?