Pete Buttigieg's war on airline loyalty devaluations | Coffee Break Ep25 | 9-10-24
Frequent Miler on the Air
Frequent Miler
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2024
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It seems like we report a new loyalty program devaluation each week. Awards cost more, fees go up, etc.. But the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants that to stop, sending letters to America's 4 largest airlines demanding information about loyalty program devaluations. In this Coffee Break episode, we'll discuss what this might all mean!
(00:26) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants that to stop.
Read more about this airline rewards probe here.
(01:11) - Let's hear the press release...
(03:15) - AA, Delta, Southwest, and United were ordered to submit information by Dec 4. Here are the categories of information requested...
(09:17) - Details indicate a fairly deep understanding of loyalty program issues.
(10:28) - What good might come out of this?
(14:08) - What bad might come of this?
(17:13) - Will anything happen at all?
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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Voyescape podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. |
| 0:08.0 | Here we go. |
| 0:16.4 | This is not your typical frequent mile on the air episode. This is a standalone segment we're calling coffee break. |
| 0:24.6 | Each coffee break segment will cover a single topic related to miles and points. |
| 0:30.2 | And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or your money back. Enjoy. |
| 0:37.1 | Pete Buttigieg's war on Airline Loyalty Devaluations. |
| 0:42.7 | All right. It seems like we report a new loyalty program devaluation every week on the show. |
| 0:47.5 | We don't like to report them, but we have to. Awards cost more or fees go up. All kinds of |
| 0:54.1 | bad things happen all the time but u.s. |
| 0:57.7 | Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants to put a stop to that he sent letters to |
| 1:03.3 | america's four largest airlines demanding information about loyalty program devaluations specifically |
| 1:10.2 | the goal is to ensure that customer rewards are protected from any practices |
| 1:15.5 | that would diminish their value, benefit, or availability. |
| 1:19.5 | Wow. |
| 1:20.0 | Yeah, so the U.S. Department of Transportation released a press statement on September 5th, |
| 1:25.9 | 2024 with the headline, US DOT seeks to protect consumers' |
| 1:30.5 | airline rewards and probe of four largest U.S. airline rewards practices. |
| 1:35.6 | Subheading there was Secretary Buttigieg orders airlines to provide reports and records as part |
| 1:40.6 | of the DOT inquiry aimed at protecting the value of rewards and benefits earned by travelers. |
| 1:45.1 | So this was pretty interesting, this press release, again, presumably trying to find out more about the |
| 1:52.0 | rewards practices of the major U.S. airlines. There were a couple of interesting quotes from U.S. |
... |
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