If you watch the news right now, it’s all doom and gloom but there are good things happening too. Here’s some positive news from the travel world.
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Royal Air Moroc Creates Opportunities with American Airlines
Royal Air Moroc joined the oneworld Alliance at the worst possible moment as the world is ensnared in the coronavirus crisis. However, American Airlines reached a logical conclusion (for once) aligning Morocco with Europe as opposed to North Africa. The distance between Royal Air Maroc and its US destinations are as close as New York is to London so it makes sense to be in the same category.
For some, this is bad news. Royal Air Maroc would have offered new opportunities to secure award space for African destinations avoiding the (laughable) fuel surcharges and APD that come with British Airways flights, along with splitting up the award into two.
However, Maroc’s network is limited on the African continent but provides excellent connections to Europe and will help American Airlines customers with new route availability.
Opportunities for Incredible Deals
TAP Portugal re-launched its frequent flyer program. Gilbert from God Save the Points highlights that members can take score a great deal when using TAP Miles & Go points for Emirates flights. Asia to and from Africa is available in business class for just 100,000 points, which happen to be on sale currently.
JetBlue offered flights to Puerto Rico from the Boston for just 200 TrueBlue points (transferable from Chase Ultimate Rewards) or bookable for $12/one-way.
Some airlines have been stingy with awards in the interim, but space is wide open for many US carriers beginning in January. That includes every single day in January on United from Newark to London in its excellent Polaris cabin for saver prices.
Conclusion
It’s not all bad news and I am looking forward to returning to the skies soon. I am happy to see deals are still popping up and can’t wait to see what the world holds for all of us later in 2020. American Airlines Marocco re-classification will likely see my family return to Marrakech soon, which has been on my list since we last visited eight years ago last month.
What do you think? Is there more good news I should have included? What have you seen?
The bar has been heavily lowered when Royal Air Maroc officially joining One World is thought of as the weeks most uplifting news. But I agree, we need to take anything we can these days.
I’ve even started watching cat videos on Facebook I am so desperate.
I always enjoy reading Matthew’s and your posts. And I’ve made a couple of purchases through the affiliate links in the past. You start out with ‘new credit card…use us’ in your posts. Perfectly understandable.
But how would I justify a new credit card, assuming for airline miles or hotel points? While there may be great deals out there, no one knows the future of borders; no one knows if a property is going to be suddenly unavailable; no one knows if F or J service will go back to what it last was in February. (If F or J service is no better than Y service, maybe with the exception of a lie-flat seat, but no beverage/food service, no airport lounge, etc., I am likely better off paying for cheap Y tickets if I do decide to go somewhere.)
Earning additional points for restaurants has been useful, but restaurants in my area of the US are seemingly developing a plan where you can eat in, in a socially distanced environment, but the food will be served packaged for carryout and only beverages that are sealed will be served (like bottled or canned soft drinks and beer). I’m not going to eat out under those conditions.
I have a credit card with a high annual fee to give me lounge access. It renewed in January, well before the current situation. The credit card provider has made no move toward extending the benefits and/or greatly reducing the fee next year. It is likely that I’ll cancel the card in December as the lounge benefit is its only truly useful benefit to me. And $495 annually buys me a lot of airport meals, if airport meals can actually be purchased. And then where do I consume that airport meal – will airport establishments even have the capacity for socially-distanced eating?
Finally, I have nothing to spend my money on right now. I am fortunate that I am working full time plus. But I have minimal expenses. It would be very difficult for me to meet minimum spend on a credit card, unless I got into MS, but I neither have the time nor interest to move into that arena.
Perhaps these thoughts are a discussion for a blog post by Matthew or you? Perhaps LLF should reach out to Chase, Citi, AmEx, etc. to see what the future holds for current cardholders with virtually useless benefits.
Keep up the good work and I’ll continue to check in weekly!