The briefing in brief: The FAA is poised to slash United and American schedules at O'Hare. Big World of Hyatt changes make the program more complicated and much more expensive, but at least an award chart remains. Qantas will fly winter nonstops between Las Vegas and Sydney. Air Canada adds service to Quito, Ecuador, from Toronto and Montreal. JetBlue links its JFK hub to United's Houston/Intercontinental hub. Southwest already adjusting its new seating and carry-on rules. And much more.

TRUMP MAY FINALLY BE TAKING ABUSIVE AIRLINES SERIOUSLY
When the Trump Administration returned to office 14 months ago, U.S. airlines heaved a sigh of relief. And why not? Trump and his flying point people promptly unwound most of the Biden Administration's new or proposed regulations. Trump's folks also scaled back or forgave millions of dollars of fines that the airlines had been hit with during Biden's days. But now, there are some signs that the Trump folks aren't too happy with the big carriers. Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair blistered American Airlines this week on X, the administration's favorite pulpit. "Today, American delays me 2.5 hours because someone failed to notice empty hydraulic fluid before" takeoff. "Yesterday, they apparently forgot to book a pilot for my wife's flight." Then Blair blustered: "I'm going to take a new interest in the airline industry." Now those might just be words from an entitled young pol--Blair is all of 36 years old--but another development is likely to carry much more weight: On Tuesday (March 3), the FAA will hold a "scheduling reduction" process for Chicago/O'Hare and is likely to impose massive cuts on flights at the overwhelmed airport. As United and American have ramped up the fight at their shared hub, the two carriers have combined to schedule almost 3,100 take-offs and landings at ORD this summer. That's nearly 15% more than last summer and far more than the airport can handle on a timely basis. Watch this carefully in the days ahead.

WORLD OF HYATT GETS MORE COMPLICATED--AND EXPENSIVE
The good news about the huge changes to World of Hyatt, scheduled to begin in May? There will still be an actual award chart so you will always know how much an award stay for a room will cost. The bad news? Hyatt has jacked award prices into the stratosphere via an expansion of the chart. Instead of the existing structure of three prices per hotel--low, normal and high rates--there now will be five. How do you invent five categories of award prices for each room? You claim there are "lowest, low, moderate, upper or top" periods. To be scrupulously fair, Hyatt is lowering the price of the cheapest awards by 500-2,000 points at several of its eight award categories. But they "balance" that by increasing the price of the top category by as much as two-thirds. It means the most expensive award on the general chart will cost 75,000 points per night, up from the current 45,000 points. And if that's not eye-popping enough, consider: Two decades ago, the highest priced redemption (at some Park Hyatts) was 15,000 points a night. Now many of those best hotels (think Park Hyatts in Tokyo, Milan, New York or Sydney) will cost 75,000 points for an award night during the "top" period of demand. There are a raft of other price adjustments and structural changes. Examine the entire spread here.

QANTAS WILL FLY NONSTOP TO LAS VEGAS
Here's a route you probably weren't expecting: Qantas says it'll add nonstops between its Sydney hub and Las Vegas. The thrice-weekly winter runs will operate between December 29 and March 12 using Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Flight time will be about 14 hours.
        Porter Airlines is adding three transborder routes. Effective May 11, it'll fly between Nashville and Toronto/City (YTZ) using the carrier's uniquely configured Q400 turboprops. On May 14, it will launch service to Boston from both Toronto/Pearson (YYZ) and Montreal. Both of those routes will be operated with E195-E2 aircraft.
        Air Canada says it'll launch nonstops to Quito, Ecuador. Winter flights will operate from both Toronto/Pearson and Montreal using Boeing 787-8s. There'll be three weekly flights from Montreal and a weekly Saturday service from Toronto. Both routes will run from early December through late March.

JETBLUE LINKS ITS JFK HUB WITH UNITED'S IAH HUB
The so-called Blue Sky alliance between United Airlines and JetBlue Airways is yielding a new hub-to-hub run. JetBlue says it'll add twice-daily nonstops between its New York/JFK hub and United's massive complex at Houston/Intercontinental. Service begins May 21. JetBlue already flies between its Boston/Logan hub and IAH.
        Salt Lake City flyers now have access to a service called Bringit. The company will pick up or deliver bags to your home, office and hotel from SLC. Prices start at $37 for up to two bags. It operates within a 30-mile radius of the airport although longer distances can be arranged for an extra $1 per mile.
        New York/LaGuardia now has a Capital One Landing facility. Fronted by chef Jose Andres, the 12,500-square-foot, 180-seat restaurant/lounge is located in Terminal B. Reservations are required. Venture X cardholders receive free access with a same-day boarding pass. Capital One and Spark Miles cardholders pay $45 per person.

BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
To the surprise of no one, Southwest Airlines is already making changes to its seat assignment and carry-on bag policy. After the first month of paradigm-shifting moves, the airline says it is adjusting boarding groups to create more near-your-seat bin space. It will also label the bins above the carrier's new Extra Legroom seats to reserve carry-on space for the passengers entitled to those seats. Finally, it is promising to upgrade its in-flight cabins with more spacious bins. It claims 70% of the fleet will have more capacious overhead space by the end of the year.
        Waymo says that it has expanded its driverless taxi service to four new cities: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando.
        Chase Ultimate Rewards now can be transferred to Wyndham Rewards. I don't know why you'd do that, but now you can if you want to ...