The briefing in brief: Southwest Airlines will eliminate half its inter-island Hawaii flying while Hawaiian Airlines will switch to a hand-me-down fleet of Alaska Airlines Boeing 737s. JetBlue pays royally for more slots at New York/LaGuardia after slashing service there. Naples Airport in Italy will close for the month of November. A Chase Sapphire Lounge opens at Dallas/Fort Worth. Air Canada and Hyatt link loyalty programs. Tokyo plans a massive hotel-tax increase next year. And more.

TIME FOR A GENERATIONAL SHIFT IN HAWAII FLYING
Things do move more slowly in Hawaii and that includes its flying industry. On the other hand, the state depends on airlines for inter-island transportation and, of course, airlines are what tethers Hawaii to the mainland. Which is a wordy way of saying flying to, from and around Hawaii is changing after another long period of statis. Here's what you need to know:
        Southwest Airlines is slashing its Hawaii service. No one would have expected that when Southwest, after years of breathless anticipation, launched Hawaii flights in March, 2019. The airline's newest schedule lists just 32 inter-island flights in March, down from twice that many in 2023. Even more important: Southwest has cancelled all service between the "neighbor islands." Going forward, all Southwest flights will connect only Honolulu to the neighbor islands: Hilo and Kona on the Big Island; Kahului, Maui; and Lihue, Kauai. Southwest also is downsizing its mainland schedule. More than half of Southwest's flights to Hawaii will operate from two airports: Las Vegas and San Diego. There are huge cuts to Hawaii flights from the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles-area airports.
        Hawaiian Airlines will retire its 128-seat Boeing 717s, the heart of its inter-island fleet. Starting in 2028, Hawaiian will use reflagged, 161-seat Boeing 737-800s originally flown by its parent, Alaska Airlines. That fleet shift will have some benefits, however. There'll be twice as many first class seats (16) and 36 premium economy chairs. The planes will also be equipped with power outlets, USB ports and free Starlink WiFi. Before the systemwide transition, however, Hawaiian in October will deploy an Alaska Air 737 on three daily roundtrips between Honolulu and Kahului (OGG), the state's busiest inter-island run.

JETBLUE WINS LAGUARDIA SLOTS AFTER DOWNSIZING THERE
The airline industry is just weird sometimes. How else to explain the news that JetBlue Airways has won the bidding for defunct Spirit Airlines' slots at New York/LaGuardia? The airline bid $58.5 million for 22 slots, which represents a dozen daily departures and 10 daily arrivals. Just recently, however, JetBlue executives derided LGA as "incredibly expensive" and reduced its daily schedule to 13 from 50 flights. The airline said then it cost JetBlue $40 a head to fly passengers into and out of LaGuardia. But now they have just spent a tidy sum to buy slots to operate there. Go figure. One potential silver lining? The former Spirit slots must be used at the Marine Air Terminal aka Terminal A. It is cheaper to operate from there than other LGA terminals.
        Naples Airport in Italy's third largest city will close for the entire month of November. The airport authority says the closure is required to execute a major runway modernization. Sounds fair enough, but what Italian infrastructure ever gets done in the stated time period? Plan accordingly.
        Montreal/Trudeau Airport is now home to Air Canada City Shuttle. It will operate 37 daily bus frequencies between the airport and the Palais des Congrès in downtown Montreal. The cost is C$9 one-way plus taxes. More details are here.

THE GHOSTS OF FLYING'S TRAGIC PAST
For better or for worse, travel--and especially business travel--is about the now and the next. There isn't much cogitation on what has gone before. But attention must be paid to two ghosts of travel's past that reemerged last week.
         After meeting in the White House last Tuesday (July 21) with Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, President Trump lifted the 41-year ban on U.S. carriers flying to Lebanon. "I am allow[ing] all U.S. airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land,” he wrote on social media. As you may recall, U.S. airlines were banned after TWA Flight 847 was hijacked and flown repeatedly to Beirut during a 17-day hostage crisis. Whether the wartorn nation is any more stable now is a matter of conjecture. Of course, no U.S. airline would risk flying to Beirut no matter what Trump will permit. At the moment, no U.S. airline has flown anywhere in the Middle East or Israel since the outbreak of the Iran War.
        The wreckage of Pan Am Flight 526A was located last month and publicly disclosed last week. The seven-year-old Douglas DC-4 crashed in the waters off Puerto Rico in 1952 and that tragedy led to major changes in commercial aviation. Among the policies instituted: pre-flight safety announcements to passengers and demonstrations of emergency procedures for overwater flights.

AMEX SAYS PLATINUM IS ITS CURRENT CARD STAR
American Express says that Platinum cardholders haven't really complained about last year's $200 hike in the annual fee. Platinum, which now carries an $895 annual charge, is the company's fastest-growing card, Amex said during last week's second-quarter earnings call. In fact, the card is driving higher customer spending and more upgrading from lower priced Amex products. The retention rate is also exceptionally high despite the fee bump, the bank claimed. But some warnings: Only about a quarter of the existing Platinum card base has been hit with the higher fee--and Amex admits to much higher marketing spending to fuel Platinum's numbers. In other words, stay tuned because what glitters during an earnings call is not always gold … er platinum.
        Dallas/Fort Worth already has an impressive collection of airport clubs. Now one more. An 18,000-square-foot Chase Sapphire Lounge opened in Terminal D across from Gate D25. It offers a whiskey lounge, a by-appointment spa with showers and Chase's first grab-and-go operation.
        Air Canada Aeroplan and World of Hyatt will now allow customers to link accounts. The benefits and the utility of the tie-up depend on your status level and spending. Examine the rules for Hyatt players here. Air Canada flyers, consult this verbiage.

TRAVEL NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Tokyo is planning a massive increase next year to its lodging tax. The nightly tax now is 200 yen (about $1.25) per hotel guest. Starting in April, however, the city will collect a 3% charge per guest per night on any accommodation priced above 13,000 yen (about US$79). Do the math: On a three-night stay in a 33,000-yen-a-night (about US$200) hotel, the tax will jump from less than US$4 to $18. On a luxury property such as the Park Hyatt Tokyo--it's charging around US$800 a night this weekend--the three-night tax rate will be almost US$100 next year instead of less than $4.
        Singapore remains the world's most expensive city for "luxury" goods, according to a survey from Swiss wealth management firm Julius Baer. The other cities in the top five won't surprise you, either: Zurich, Monaco, London and Hong Kong. The firm says it analyzed 20 items such as business class flights, residential property, automobiles, school fees and upmarket dining. You can read more and download the full report here.