American Express clawing back points, JetBlue hiking Spirit fares by 40% and American Airlines upgrading pilots before passengers (Saturday Selection)

The American Express Rewards Abuse Team (RAT) is on the prowl, JetBlue accidentally tells the world that it plans to hike airfare on Spirit and American Airlines will begin upgrading pilots before customers. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to each article are embedded in the titles).

JetBlue botches redactions, reveals plans to hike Spirit airfare by 40%

We’ve all had bad days at work. You’re a little foggy mid-afternoon, lunch is digesting, your attention lapses because you remember that the new season of “Only Murders in the Building” is out and…whoopsy-daisies, you accidentally send out information that could block a merger and causes your company’s stock to drop 5%. That’s what happened this week to some unfortunate soul on JetBlue’s legal team. The airline is currently trying to complete the purchase of Spirit Airlines. The feds are trying to block it because they say it’s non-competitive consolidation that will result in increased prices, while JetBlue contends that it creates more competition for United, Delta and American. At the same time, there’s a consumer lawsuit the company is involved in that required it to submit some internal documentation earlier this week. Evidently one document was incorrectly formatted and, when it was copied and pasted, all of the redaction was removed. This allowed the plaintiff (and soon the rest of the world) to find out that JetBlue plans to raise airfares on Spirit by up to 40% post-merger and that Spirit leaving a route that it serves causes airfare on that route to go up by 30%. None of this is terribly surprising, but it does make it, um, tricky to argue against the Justice Department’s assertion that the merger will increase airfares for US customers.

The American Express Rewards Abuse Team (RAT) is at it again

The RAT is loose again…and I don’t mean Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The American Express Rewards Abuse Team haunts points miles collectors and is responsible for making sure that we aren’t amassing our rewards fortune in an untoward, “gaming” fashion. Even when we don’t hear about them for awhile, we’re still suspicious in that “things are quiet, but maybe too quiet” way. We know they’re still out there. Recently, the RAT has been making itself felt again, harshing our Membership Rewards buzz with oddly-targeted clawbacks and increasingly stringent card approval rules. Miles Earn and Burn summarizes what we’ve seen in the past couple of months and, while it’s far from scorched earth, it is a signal that the points parade of the last couple years might be slowing.

American Airlines will begin upgrading pilots before customers

When I was a kid, my brother and sister had jobs at a grocery store and everyone who worked there, including the owner and managers, would park in the back of the parking lot. The reason? They wanted to leave the spaces closer to the store for customers. Maybe that’s what American Airlines was trying to convey with their tagline, “You Are Why We Fly.” AA’s pilots, on the other hand, have decided to take a different tack. They just approved their newest contract, which includes a 21% immediate raise and a 46% raise over four years (I need to get ahold of their agent). Not only that, but it allows pilots to have top first class upgrade priority, above paying customers, when flying between two segments that they’re working, or “deadheading.” Flight attendants doing the same still have to slum it in the back with the legions of un-upgraded AAdvantage elite members. Evidently, only 73% of the pilots voted for the deal, which leads to my biggest question: what the heck did the other 27% want?

Skiplagged is sued again for the very first time

“Skiplagging” is the practice of booking a connecting flight but only flying the first leg and skipping the second. This is done because sometimes airlines actually charge more to buy a non-stop flight from one city to another than they do for a connecting itinerary with the exact same direct flight attached. Airlines say that it violates their terms and conditions while threatening dire consequences if they catch folks doing it. Some have actually tried to sue repeat offenders (unsuccessfully). There is a website called “Skiplagged” that sells cheap airfare by using the practice. It’s quite successful and gets over three million visits/month. The site has been sued by United and Southwest without success and actually uses the United lawsuit as a tagline on its landing page. American Airlines is currently in the process of trying to crack down on skiplagging (maybe to make more room for pilots). A couple of weeks ago, they made an example of a 17-year old boy whose father had purchased him a ticket using Skiplagged, refusing to let him board a plane and calling his parents to demand more money before he could complete his trip. Now, evidently inspired by all the racketeering charges in the news, they’ve decided to become the third airline to sue the ringleader of all this funny business, Skiplagged. Some say insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. AA says “hold my beer.”

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