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A roundup of some of the news I’ve noticed over the past 48 hours including details of Emirates’ new flights to Chile, news that Starbucks is going down a path that I don’t understand and news that Etihad is apparently so desperate for cash that it’s cutting another premium cabin benefit.
Emirates Will Launch Service To Chile In 2018
Emirates has announced that it will add a new 5th freedom flight to its network from July this year when it launches service to Chile.
The Middle Eastern carrier already flys an Airbus A380 between Dubai and Sao Paulo on a daily schedule and, from 5 July 2018, Emirates will add a further 5 flights to Sao Paulo using its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.
These 5 new flights to Sao Paulo will spend 90 minutes on the ground in Brazil before continuing on to Santiago, Chile.
This is what the schedule will look like:
EK263 DXB 09:05 – 17:00 GRU 18:30 – 21:40 SCL (Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun)
EK264 SCL 01:10 – 05:55 GRU 07:45 – 05:15+1 day DXB (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun)
The 777-200LR that will operate this route will offer 38 Business Class seats and 264 Economy Class seats and the airline has confirmed that it is selling fares for travel solely between the two South American cities.
Bookings for this new route are already open.
Starbucks Is Introducing A Credit Card
Doctor of Credit has reported that Starbucks has provided information about a planned co-branded credit card that the company intends to launch with Chase.
The card will be a Visa card and is due to be launched in February (so any time from today onwards). The credit card will allow users to earn Starbuck Stars “at an accelerated rate” as well as allowing them to earn Stars everywhere else Visa is accepted.
The Seattle coffee giant also plans to introduce a prepaid card in April of this year which is “targeted to customers who don’t want or can’t qualify for credit cards”. This card will also allow customers to earn Starbucks Stars wherever Visa is accepted.
The earning rates and rewards for the new card have been leaked and they are:
- 1 Star for every dollar spent outside of Starbucks
- Up to 3 stars for every dollar spent with Starbucks
- Immediate Gold status
- 8 “Barista picks” in a year (I have no idea what these are)
Oh boy….
I really don’t know where to start with this.
My first thought on reading this news was “why are they bothering?” and my second thought was “who’s going to sign up for this?” as I genuinely cannot see the point of a Starbucks credit card.
I know that millions of people buy Starbucks coffee every day but who out of those millions actually ever thinks to themselves “I wish I could use a credit card to earn Starbucks Stars quicker”?
Unless I’m missing something here Starbucks Stars can only be spent at Starbucks where the choice of food and drink isn’t exactly wide (or particularly good), so why would anyone choose to use a credit card that only earns Stars…..especially one with such atrocious earning rates?
Isn’t it a considerably better idea to earn rewards in the form of cashback or points that can be used in a wide variety of ways and places (like Chase Ultimate Rewards points)?
Starbucks Stars or Chase UR points? I know which I’d choose!
Also, there’s nothing aspirational about earning a lot of Stars – there’s no amazingly special coffee that you can buy with Stars (that costs too much to buy with cash) – so where’s the incentive for people to collect Starbucks stars over any other loyalty currency?
I just don’t get it and I can’t see this card surviving for very long at all.
Etihad Reduces Baggage Allowance On Premium Cabin Fares
I’m starting to really worry about Etihad. Out of the big 3 Middle Eastern carriers Etihad is the only one that looks like it’s scraping the barrel to find cash from anywhere it can. It’s starting to look a little desperate.
Etihad has made some poor investment decisions over the years (Alitalia and airBerlin being just two of them) and, over the past 12 to 18 months, the airline has been introducing all kinds of measures to boost its coffers.
So far the airline has….
- Started selling access to its JFK Residence Lounge
- Started selling First Class amenities to Economy Class passengers
- Cut mileage earning rates on a number of partner airlines
- Cancelled its Abu Dhabi to Dallas route
- Reduced service to Los Angeles
- Introduced the ability for travelers to finance their flights
- Eliminated chauffeur services (except for in the UAE)
- Reduced the offerings in lounges dramatically
- Increased the cost of onboard wi-fi
To be honest there may have been more cuts and money making ventures but, as we seem to get a new one every month, it’s hard to keep up!
Now Etihad is moving its checked baggage policy from a “number of bags” policy to a “total weight” policy and this sees those buying premium fares lose out….at least on most routes (the US and Canada are so far unaffected).
Here’s how the baggage policies compare if you convert the original policy to its weight equivalent:
*Passengers booking the Residence see no change – 4 bags at up to 32kg each
Those on the cheaper fares are either unaffected or do a little bit better but, as the table shows, those buying premium fares get hit quite bad.
Business Class passengers are the worst hit with their allowance moving from 2 bags of up to 32Kg each to an allowance of just 40Kg.
Etihad says that this move is to “allow for a simpler baggage structure as the allowance for all markets, excluding the US and Canada, is now based on total weight rather than the number of bags checked in” but this doesn’t really ring true.
Image Etihad
If all the airline wanted to do was to align the rules across the board (some Etihad routes already had baggage allowances dictated by weight) it just had to do what I did in the table above – convert the old allowance into a weight allowance.
But that’s not what’s happened.
I’m left to assume that Etihad has reduced the premium cabin allowance in the hopes that those who are used to being able to take most of their world belongings with them when they travel will continue to do so….and will now pay for the privilege.
