Adam Nathan

22 cities got nonstop flights to Tulum's new airport. After next May, only 3 are left.

Mexico's army built it for about 16 billion pesos. Here's how it emptied out so fast.

Foreign airlines usually can't fly domestic routes in someone else's country. Yet LATAM is the #1 domestic airline in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador.

I assumed the TAM merger explained it. It didn't. LAN had already figured out how to reproduce an airline across borders.

A 1h20 flight sounds a lot faster than a 3 hour train. Door to door, it usually isn't.

I timed eight busy city pairs from city center to city center. When the train ride is about 3 hours or less, it ties or beats the plane, even with just an hour at the airport.

I asked ChatGPT, Google, and Perplexity how to fly two people in business class on points, on five routes: San Francisco to Tokyo, LA to Sydney, San Francisco to Singapore, New York to Madrid, and New York to London. Same balances every time: 150,000 Chase points and 150,000 Amex points.

Then I checked every answer against the airline programs' own award charts.

🔍 Google didn't get a single price right that I could check. On Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, and Madrid it quoted prices from before this year's increases. It told me 300,000 points would cover two seats to Sydney "at the lower 75,000-point threshold." That price is gone. Aeroplan charges 85,000 each way now, so it's 340,000.

🤖 ChatGPT got three of five right, including Singapore and Madrid, where it knew about the recent increases. But on Tokyo and Sydney it used Aeroplan's old price, and both times said my 300,000 points were enough. They're 40,000 short.

🧭 Perplexity was right on Tokyo and London, and on Tokyo it was the only one to catch Aeroplan's increase. But on Sydney and Singapore it wouldn't give me a number at all, and on Madrid it used Iberia's old price.

Every wrong answer had the same problem: an old price, lower than today's. So you'd transfer your points, which you can't undo, and come up short.

The fix is boring. Every one of these programs publishes its award chart. Check it before you move a single point.

Why is first class so expensive now? Partly 3% mortgages.

When rates jumped in 2022, almost nobody with a cheap mortgage wanted to sell. Fewer people moved, so less money went to new houses and furniture. Luxury goods got too expensive too: a Chanel bag went from $5,800 to $11,300.

A lot of that money went to trips instead. Total US travel spending grew less than inflation, but Delta's premium revenue grew 45%.