If I were one of Beenz's 5.4 million members, I would cash in my Beenz points immediately. Better to be safe than sorry. Meanwhile, the gold standard of online rewards programs, ClickRewards, is losing its chairman, West Shell, and CFO, Jack Longinotti. Purchase tickets at least 7 days before departure, and no later than Friday, June 1. It's been a full year since United and US Airways announced plans to merge.
Analysts now use terms like 'unlikely' and 'moribund' to characterize the merger's chances.
And while both carriers continue to publicly promote the plan, rumors are that internal working groups tasked with implementing the merger have been disbanded. It has long been the battle cry of travel agents that they were a travel buyer's best friend, using their knowledge and resources to deliver the best available values to their clients. The study found that fully half of a sampling of travel agents failed to provide prospective customers with the lowest available airline fare. Consumer Reports stopped short of a definitive diagnosis, but clearly suspected that agents were allowing override commissions to undermine their objectivity. The report is a black eye for agents, already battered by airline commission caps and competition from online agencies like Expedia, Travelocity and Hotwire.