Elite status tips

Most elite members of Delta ‘s SkyMiles program probably didn’t pore over the airline’s recent Investor Day presentation. And of those that did, only a handful got as far as Slide 37 in the 56-slide deck. For their perseverance, they were rewarded with an ugly truth: First-class upgrades, already in scarce supply, are set to become scarcer still.

Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.

While JetBlue’s new elite status-match campaign isn’t overtly directed at any single airline, its underlying goal is almost certainly to wean away current Virgin America elites in the run-up to that airline’s merger with Alaska Airlines.

Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.

Members of JetBlue’s TrueBlue program now have another points-earning option: Icelandair flights.

The Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard is the high-end credit card linked to American’s AAdvantage program. High end as in a $450 annual fee.

Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.

Oh, how the hotels want you to book direct with them, on their websites, via their smartphone apps, or by phone!

When it comes to making elite status in its Rapid Rewards program a must-have status for high-frequency flyers, Southwest is at a considerable competitive disadvantage. With no first-class seats or airport lounges, there’s just not much that Southwest can offer super-loyalists in exchange for their business.

On the landing page of a new website touting the consumer benefits of Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America, which closed today, there’s this:

As a self-described budget airline, Southwest lacks the cushy seats and airport lounges full-service airlines use to reward elite members of their loyalty programs. Southwest’s signature benefit for its best customers — and it’s a doozey — is the Companion Pass: free flights for a travel companion, for travelers who fly 100 one-way flights or accumulate 110,000 Rapid Rewards points.

Normally an airline updating its boarding process wouldn’t be newsworthy. But take a gander at American’s new boarding procedure, which debuted March 1, and … wow.

For the past seven years, Club Carlson has been the loyalty program for Carlson Hotels. OK, except, confusingly, there aren’t any Carlson hotels, except for Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, which are widely known simply as Country Inn & Suites.

To airline managers, an airplane sitting on the ground is a horror: an expensive asset failing to justify its expense. The goal is full utilization, which means keeping planes airborne as many hours as possible, with as many passengers on board as possible.

The travel blogosphere lost its collective mind earlier this week when Southwest peremptorily made it more difficult to earn what might be that airline’s most coveted award.