Saudia

So where people are investing their IT spends now is not migrating to a different PSS, it's developing the merchandising, uh, the personalization, offer and order, and figuring out how AI, um, you know, will optimize the customer experience.

Yeah, and while we saw a flurry of activity maybe a couple of years ago with airlines like British Airways, Finnair, Saudia announcing a commitment to Amadeus Nevio and Virgin Australia to Sabre and so on, what I think we're seeing more of now is airlines adopting some components, especially in the offer side.

And, and there's, there's quite, um, quite a lot of activity around offer optimization.

Um, Sabre is doing quite well with some of its Mosaic components in that respect, and of course, people like PROS are continuing to offer the things they always have.

Emirates ranks second in the region and once again leads in-flight entertainment with its ICE system.

Saudia receives the awards for the best airline staff and cabin crew in the Middle East, demonstrating that regional competition is not limited to the physical product.

North America.

Air Canada leads while Delta stands out for service.

Link in the show notes.

Also quick on the buy miles radar, Saudia's Alfursan program is offering a ninety-six percent bonus on purchased miles through the thirtieth of September.

The key angle here is Saudia First Class, which isn't bookable through most partner programs.

A one-way first class award from Saudi Arabia to Europe costs sixty-two thousand five hundred miles.

You could buy enough for around nine hundred and fifty-nine dollars That's a niche redemption, but if you're curious about Saudia First Class and have some flexibility, this promotion is how you unlock it.

On the transferable points side, Rove is running a four-day promotion from the fifteenth to the eighteenth of September.

New members who sign up through a referral get one thousand free transferable miles with no purchase required.

Just come and see what it is.

Just come in that environment before we go for Umrah." From Mauritius, there's a direct Saudia flight for Umrah.

But he didn't take that option.

He came to South Africa.

so uh

But that's Saudia.

That's not EA anymore.

Saudia is crazy.

That's insane.

I hope they change their name to that.

Saudia.

It's in your building.

No. Frank Williams needed some money, so he obviously went out searching for sponsors.

And one of the sponsors he found alongside Saudi Air, while he was in Saudi Arabia, he found the Bin Laden group.

And... had uh you can see it on the side of like i think it's the fw08 and the 07s um just behind the front wheel pick up a picture of it i think it is the fw07 uh w07 williams um Yeah, you can see it just ahead of the front wheel in a clean side-on shot on some of them.

It will say Bin Laden.

They ended up having to make an official apology to one of the guys in Saudi Arabia.

A lot of them were from Saudi Arabian Airlines.

So any time people start running by you, oh, the Saudis did it, the Saudis were behind 9-11, the Saudis financed all the terrorism.

Take another look, because it just doesn't stand up at all.

You may be getting to this, but unless you want to talk about this later, can you hazard a guess or do you know how those names were obtained? Was there some kind of database from which they were ripped?

Yeah, it looks like there are two or three databases.

One of the, they definitely, the FBI in creating the list definitely targeted Saudi Arabian Airlines.

So some of these guys are people at the desk of Saudi Arabian Airlines in Riyadh or Jeddah, never been to the United States.

The window will be closed.

Richard Hughes can get on his, on the next, uh, Saudi Airlines flight.

And, um, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the window's over or maybe, maybe everyone will be counting down the days to January.

Yeah.