![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Business Travel Briefing for March 9 to 23, 2017 The briefing in brief: Alaska Airlines and Virgin America build fast in the San Francisco Bay area. Priority Pass adds more domestic options. Six airlines win new routes to Mexico. Small-town America gets some love from major hotels. Qatar Airways adds double beds in business class. ![]() Alaska Airlines has spent the last few years battling Delta Air Lines for supremacy--and survival--at Seattle-Tacoma. So it's no surprise that it won't roll over in San Francisco, where United Airlines is the big dog and Alaska's Virgin America subsidiary fights for a solid foothold. It also explains why Alaska Airlines today (March 9) announced a dozen new routes in the Bay Area. The bulk-up isn't just at SFO, either. Alaska is adding flights at nearby San Jose, too. Seven of the SFO routes will use Virgin America Airbus aircraft and the other five will run with E175 commuter jets under the Alaska Air banner. The new SFO nonstops under the Virgin flag are to Philadelphia; New Orleans; Nashville; Indianapolis; Raleigh-Durham; Baltimore; and Kona, Hawaii. The regional-jet routes are to Albuquerque and Kansas City. From San Jose, the new routes will be to Austin, Tucson and Los Angeles. The new flights launch between late August and mid-October, except for the Kona run, which begins in December. Separately, Alaska moved a few notches closer to aligning its Mileage Plan and Virgin's Elevate frequent flyer programs. The changes, detailed here, give Alaska's elite flyers more benefits on Virgin flights, including free checked bags, fee waivers and upgrade opportunities. ![]() It's hard to find fault with Priority Pass, the global airport lounge network that most business travelers now get through their credit cards. But if you found fault, it would be with Priority Pass' comparative weakness at domestic airports. So here's some good news. Priority Pass has added the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Terminal A at Newark. It also added a new option at lounge-poor Philadelphia. But it's not a club. Priority Pass members will get a free hour's use of a room at the Minute Suites short-stay hotel in the AB Connector between Concourses A and B. Separately, Priority Pass members now also receive a 15 pound credit at Grain Store Cafe and Bar in the South Terminal of London/Gatwick. ![]() ![]() ![]() Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico are linking up in a joint venture and the price exacted by the Department of Transportation was a divestiture of 28 slots, 24 at Mexico City and four at New York/Kennedy. The DOT announced the winners of the lottery last week and three U.S. and three Mexican carriers struck gold, er, slots. Alaska Airlines receives four Mexico City slot pairs this year and will launch flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. JetBlue Airways will get six slot pairs, enough to launch flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale this year and Los Angeles next year. Southwest Airlines get enough slots to launch flights to Houston/Hobby this year and flights next year to Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale. The Mexican airlines that won at Mexico City and JFK were Volaris, Interjet and VivaAerobus. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It's one thing to open new hotels in the big cities, where lots of business travelers visit. But we also have to travel to small-town America, too, and the lodging options there have often been less than palatable. But that is changing as major chains look for new places to inject their brands and expand what the industry calls its "distribution." If you're more often in small towns than big cities, some of these may be of help. ![]() ![]() ![]() Remember the "chairman's flight" scandal that toppled United Airlines chief executive Jeff Smisek in 2015? Justice, or some version of it, was meted out this week to the chairman in question, David Samson, who ran the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. For his role in extorting United Airlines into launching a flight from Newark to Columbia, South Carolina, near his weekend home, the 77-year-old Samson received four years of probation. He was also fined $100,000 and ordered to complete 3,600 hours of community service. He'll also spend a year in home confinement. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence him to two years in prison. ![]() ![]() This column is Copyright © 2017 by Joe Brancatelli. JoeSentMe.com is Copyright © 2017 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved. All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property and responsibility of Joe Brancatelli. This material may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission. |