Scott McCartney

speaker

3,086 appearances 43 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2017 last heard Dec 2021

Scott McCartney’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · How Air Travel Has Changed Over the Years, For Better or Worse · 30 Dec 2021 podcast

Well, JR, thank you very much.

It has always been a pleasure.

I've enjoyed it.

I've enjoyed the dialogue with you and with readers and listeners.

So I will miss it, but I hope everyone has safe travels going forward.

WSJ Your Money Briefing · Changes Coming to Frequent-Flier Programs · 18 Nov 2021 podcast

So the spending requirements introduced the notion that, you know, what really matters to the airline is how much you pay, not how far you fly.

Good to be with you tonight.

Well, if you go back, it was all about how long you sat in a seat, basically.

The more miles you flew, the more miles you got.

That's how they counted loyalty towards status.

And status has really become the major benefit of frequent flyer programs today.

And then over the years, airlines started adding requirements about segments and even spending so that people were gaming the system and taking just a few very long flights on very cheap fares and getting a lot of status that way.

And so the spending requirements introduced the notion that what really matters to the airline is how much you pay, not how far you fly.

So the programs have sort of evolved into frequent spending programs, not frequent flying programs.

And we've seen this sort of go to the full extreme with American Airlines next year.

They're changing the rules on their program so that you can get status completely with your credit card.

You never have to set foot on an airplane.

And you can be one of their top-level frequent flyers simply by spending a lot on the credit card.

It makes sense for airlines economically, but it really challenges and changes the notion that these are frequent flyer programs.

You can get the lower ends of the status tiers fairly easily.

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