(NEW YORK) — As travelers race to book flights for the holidays, Southwest Airlines has announced new changes that will make it easier to earn higher status, with better access to upgrades and more perks for elite members.
The largest low-cost carrier announced new perks for flyer loyalty through its Rapid Rewards program.
Starting Jan. 1, Southwest will be lowering its threshold to qualify for A-List and A-List preferred status, which allows for better access to upgrades and perks such as free drinks.
“It’s really bucking the trend of what we see with other airlines, which are actually making it harder, making it so that you need to spend more money to achieve this sort of level of status,” David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter for The Points Guy, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Recently, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian said the company “probably went too far” with its loyalty program changes, which were announced mid-September and would have made it harder to reach top status, as well as restricted access to lounges. Those changes were set to take effect in 2025, but the airline has since said it is “assessing” customer feedback — particularly from longtime Delta loyalists who were unhappy with the changes — and that “modifications” will be made “sometime over the next few weeks.”
Other airlines have made changes to their loyalty programs similar to those Delta announced earlier in September.
Changes amid the airline industry are coming as more Americans look to score holiday travel deals and experts caution that the booking window is closing.
“If you’re planning to fly for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year — now is the time to book to take advantage of the lowest prices,” Hayley Berg, lead economist for travel site Hopper, told GMA.
According to Berg and other industry experts, airfare prices for each holiday will jump $5 to $10 a day, whereas in the final three weeks before travel, those prices could spike between $10 to $30 each day.
Berg said “if you can fly on the less popular days around the holidays, you can save upwards of 40%.”
“When you fly is just as important as when you book your tickets,” she said.
Check out even more expert holiday travel tips — including the best times to book and fly — here.
(NEW YORK) — Since war broke out between Israel and Hamas last week, a Palestinian-American apparel store owner in San Diego, California, has received a spate of death threats online, she said.
The founder of a chain of Palestinian restaurants in the Northeast U.S., meanwhile, said a person last week screamed expletives at him and his employees at a location in Manhattan, accusing them of being terrorists.
The co-director of an Ontario, California-based clothing company — which sells traditional garments to Palestinians for special occasions — said business has ground to halt because customers are postponing celebrations.
Palestinian business owners in the U.S. and Canada who spoke to ABC News described a swirl of emotions in recent days: Grief for thousands in the region who have died and dread as the death toll continues to grow, fear for themselves or their peers amid an outpouring of hate and the challenge of weathering all of it as they oversee their companies.
However, the conflict has also elicited support from customers or members of local communities, nearly all of the five business owners said, describing notes scribbled on receipts or appended to delivery orders.
“It’s been very heart wrenching and difficult,” Aminah Mufa, the co-founder of the San Diego-based apparel store PaliRoots, who has faced death threats, told ABC News. “I think every Palestinian is unable to sleep right now — we’re sick to our stomachs.”
At the same time, Mufa said, she has drawn encouragement from a simultaneous upswell of compassion for Palestinians. “It has honestly been so hopeful for us,” she said.
The militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack last Saturday that has left at least 1,400 people dead and 3,400 people injured in Israel.
In Gaza, 3,000 people have been killed and another 12,500 were injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The U.N. Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) said that Gaza is running out of body bags, as well as clean water. The Palestinian territory also has no electricity, UNRWA officials said.
Sara Jayyusi, a Palestinian-Candian who runs an online clothing store based in Ontario, Canada, said she mourns the lives lost and worries about the bloodshed likely to come.
A business partner is among those in Gaza, Jayyusi said. “Every day I don’t know if she’s alive,” Jayyusi added.
Jayyusi and her husband run Deerah, a clothing company that specializes in traditional garments worn at Palestinian celebrations. She has received a barrage of threatening messages online, Jayyusi said. “Instagram is a cruel place,” she added.
Meanwhile, sales have plummeted because customers are delaying special occasions amid the war, Jayyusi said. “They’re not in a mental state to really be celebrating,” she said, noting that her husband has begun to look for another job to make up for lost income.
Still, she added, the hardship falls well short of the danger faced by Palestinians in Gaza. “As we all sleep in our homes, Palestinian people are being bombed and starved,” she said.
Israeli officials have said the military is targeting Hamas and attempting to limit civilian casualties. “We are currently striking Hamas in its entirety,” Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told ABC News “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
Abdul Eleanani, the co-owner of Ayat NYC, a chain of five Palestinian restaurants in New York and Pennsylvania, said the company has faced hateful remarks made to company staff face-to-face and over the phone, as well as an onslaught of negative Google reviews.
Last week, someone walked into the company’s lower Manhattan location at around 10:30 p.m. and yelled, “You guys are terrorists,” while adding an expletive.
The sense of fear has grown after the fatal stabbing on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in Illinois, Eleanani said. “Why did it have to lead to that?” he added.
Alongside the hateful messages, however, the restaurant chain has received far more gestures of solidarity, Eleanani said.
On Instagram, the company posted a photo of a delivery order on which a customer had included a note of support. “My heart is with you all,” the note said. “All solidarity and care to the people of Palestine.” Others have put in orders but asked the restaurant to donate the food to Palestinians instead of delivering it, Eleanani said.
Eleanani said he expects the hateful comments to continue but he remains hopeful.
“The good will overpower the small part of negativity,” he said.
“The purpose of this restaurant and what I’m building around it is just to build awareness of what’s going on back home,” he added. “Palestinians want to live in peace and coexist together.”
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As war broke out in recent days with a Hamas attack and an Israeli response that has left an estimated more than 4,100 people dead in Israel and Gaza, gruesome images and disinformation spread widely on major social media platforms.
From repurposed video game footage masquerading as videos showing military engagements to imposter accounts spreading false information about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to violent and graphic footage flooding newsfeeds — the fast-moving conflict and the volume of such posts have posed a challenge for social media platforms as they attempt to enforce rules against false or violent content.
False or horrifically graphic posts have spread across X and Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook, as well as TikTok.
European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote public letters to TikTok, X and Meta in recent days warning them of the indication that their respective platforms had been used for the spread of “illegal content” in violation of the EU’s data regulations around hate speech and disinformation. Financial penalties could result from the possible offenses, Breton added.
In a post on X, on Monday, the company said it had paid close attention to the outpouring of content on the platform related to the Israel-Hamas war.
There had been over 50 million posts globally on the Hamas attack on Israel in the two days after the attack began on Oct. 7, X said.
“As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response,” the company said. “This means we’re laser focused and dedicated to protecting the conversation on X and enforcing our rules as we continue to assess the situation on the platform.”
In response to the letter from Breton, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said on Wednesday that the company had labeled or removed tens of thousands of pieces of content related to the Israel-Hamas war. “We continue to respond promptly to law enforcement requests from around the world,” Yaccarino added.
In response to a request for comment from ABC News, Meta pointed to a statement released by a company spokesperson after receipt of the letter from Breton: “Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”
In a blog post on Friday, Meta said it had removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content in Hebrew and Arabic for violating its content moderation policies over a three-day period following the Hamas attack last Saturday.
Responding to ABC News’ request for comment, a TikTok spokesperson said the company uses automated tools as well as 40,000 content moderators in order to police posts on the platform. In response to the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the company has increased the content moderation resources that it devotes to related posts as well as posts in Hebrew and Arabic, the spokesperson added.
Each of the platforms — X, Meta and TikTok — has a policy banning accounts tied to Hamas, since the group has been labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Under an EU law called the Digital Services Act, or DSA, social media platforms are required to combat misinformation. Fines resulting from violations of the law can total up to 6% of each company’s global revenue.
On Thursday, the EU took an additional step toward enforcement against X, opening an investigation of the alleged spread of illegal content and making a formal request for information from the company. The EU called on X to provide the relevant information no later than next Wednesday.
The order follows indications of “the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech,” Breton said.
X did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the investigation, nor has the company responded publicly to it.
(NEW YORK) — One of the nation’s largest drugstore chains has voluntarily initiated the Chapter 11 process for bankruptcy protection.
Rite Aid announced Sunday that the company had reached an agreement with creditors on the terms of its financial restructuring plan that will “increase its financial flexibility” and “significantly reduce” its existing debt.
In addition to billions in debt and slumping sales, Rite Aid has faced over 1,000 federal, state and local lawsuits that claim its pharmacies allegedly filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers, according to the New York Times. In March, the Justice Department filed a complaint against the company, claiming it filled “unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances” that allegedly had obvious and often multiple red flags, indicating misuse. The company has denied those claims.
In its press release Sunday, the company stated it will “resolve litigation claims in an equitable manner.”
Rite Aid did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for additional comment.
Rite Aid says it employs more than 6,100 pharmacists and operates over 2,100 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.
The company said Sunday it had secured a commitment for $3.45 billion in new financing and debt reduction agreements under the court-supervised process which is “expected to provide sufficient liquidity to support the Company throughout this process,” adding that it would also close some underperforming store locations and sell off some assets in order to “reduce the Company’s rent expense” and “strengthen its overall financial performance.”
“The Company is making every effort to ensure customers of impacted stores have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or a nearby pharmacy, and will work to transfer prescriptions accordingly so that there is no disruption of services,” the company stated. Rite Aid “will also transfer associates at impacted stores to other Rite Aid locations where possible.”
Rite Aid also announced Jeffrey S. Stein will officially take over for Elizabeth Burr as chief executive officer. He will also serve as chief restructuring officer and a member of the company’s board of directors. Burr is expected to “continue in her role as a Director on the Company’s Board,” Rite Aid said.
“Rite Aid has served customers and communities across our country for more than 60 years, and the important actions we are taking today will enable us to move ahead as a stronger company,” Stein said in a statement. “With the support of our lenders, we look forward to strengthening our financial foundation, advancing our transformation initiatives and accelerating the execution of our turnaround strategy. In doing so, we will be even better able to deliver the healthcare products and services our customers and their families rely on now and into the future.”
(WASHINGTON) — Major housing industry groups voiced “profound concern” in a letter this week urging the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates.
The rare public admonishment from top business advocates — including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders — underscores a dramatic slowdown in the housing market due in large part to rising interest rates.
The letter arrives roughly three weeks before the Fed plans to make its latest rate-hike decision.
Mortgage rates have reached their highest level in more than two decades and they have continued to rise. Data released on Thursday showed that mortgage rates increased for the fifth consecutive week, according to Freddie Mac.
“The speed and magnitude of these [mortgage] rate increases, and resulting dislocation in our industry, is painful and unprecedented,” the letter from the housing groups said.
Here’s what to know about why real estate groups called on the Fed to stop raising rates:
What’s happening in the housing market?
Sky-high mortgage rates have dramatically slowed the housing market, since homebuyers have balked at stiff borrowing costs and home sellers have opted to stay on mortgages that lock them into relatively low rates.
Mortgage applications have fallen to their lowest level since 1996, the Mortgage Brokers Association said earlier this month.
Sales of previously owned homes, meanwhile, have plummeted more than 15% compared to a year ago, the National Association of Realtors found in August.
The slowdown has coincided with a sharp rise in costs for potential homebuyers.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has climbed to nearly 7.6%, Freddie Mac data shows.
When the Fed initiated the rise of bond yields with its first rate hike of the current series in March 2022, the average 30-year fixed mortgage stood at just 4.45%.
Each percentage point increase in a mortgage rate can add thousands or tens of thousands in additional costs each year, depending on the price of the house, according to Rocket Mortgage.
What role is the Federal Reserve playing in the housing market slowdown?
An aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve since last year has pushed up the 10-year Treasury yield, which loosely tracks with long-term mortgage rates.
The Fed has fought elevated inflation with borrowing cost increases as it tries to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand.
While inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9% last summer, price increases remain more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s inflation target.
Price increases held steady in September, fresh data on Thursday showed, suggesting that elevated inflation remains resistant to the interest rate hikes.
The persistence of elevated inflation has prompted the Fed to espouse a policy of holding interest rates at high levels for a prolonged period, which in turn has increased the 10-year Treasury yield and put upward pressure on mortgage rates.
Moreover, the Fed expects to raise rates one more time this year, according to projections released last month.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the continued effect of interest rates on mortgages, noting that activity in the housing market “remains well below levels of a year ago, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates.”
What do the housing industry groups want the Fed to do?
Housing industry advocates want the Fed to take swift actions that reassure investors and other market participants of an end to the policies cooling the industry.
Most notably, the industry groups want the central bank to release a statement saying that it has abandoned consideration of additional rate hikes.
In their letter to Fed officials, the housing groups cautioned that a further slowdown in real estate could help tip the U.S. economy into a recession, scuttling the central bank’s effort to achieve a “soft landing.”
“We urge the Fed to take these simple steps to ensure that this sector does not precipitate the hard landing the Fed has tried so hard to avoid,” the letter said.
Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Variety discount store Family Dollar recently initiated multiple recalls on products ranging from over-the-counter drugs to toothpaste sold at regional chains in nearly two dozen states.
The company first issued an announcement Oct. 5, which was published Oct. 10 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alerting Family Dollar shoppers of a voluntary recall on “over-the-counter drugs and medical devices” that had been “stored outside of labeled temperature requirements by Family Dollar and inadvertently shipped” to some of its stores from June 1 through Sept. 21, 2023.
The wide range of recalled items includes cold medicine, pain relievers, mouthwash, moisturizer, vitamins and more. Affected products were sold in 23 states from June 1 through Oct. 4, 2023.
“To date, Family Dollar has not received any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this voluntary recall,” the company statement read. “This recall is being conducted out of an abundance of caution.”
Family Dollar did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Click here to see the full list of products included in the recall and SKU information.
“Family Dollar has notified its affected stores asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product,” the company statement continued.
Customers who purchased any of the recalled items are able to return them to the purchase location without a receipt for a refund.
Family Dollar recalls multiple over-the-counter products from toothpaste to deodorant
A full list of recalled items, as well as the states impacted, can be found on the FDA’s website.
Family Dollar experienced a similar issue earlier this spring when it voluntarily recalled seven Advil products that it said were also stored at the wrong temperature.
Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of the Israeli-based tech startup Innoviz Technologies. — David Garb/Innoviz Technologies
(NEW YORK) — Israel’s government is mobilizing 360,000 reservists as the nation responds to the sudden attack by Palestinian militants.
Global companies with a presence in Israel are moving quickly to safeguard their employees and come up with contingency plans if needed. Bank of America, for example, has decided to temporarily close its offices in Tel Aviv, while other banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have instructed their employees in Israel to work from home. The computer chip giant Nvidia has canceled this month’s AI Summit in Tel Aviv.
The businesses feeling the brunt of the war’s impact are Israeli tech startups, where many young executives and employees are joining the fight.
That could be a potential blow to the country’s tech sector, which accounts for about one-fifth of the Israeli economy.
Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of Innoviz Technologies, said business is continuing at his Israeli-based company that makes LiDar sensors and software for industries including the auto sector.
“Almost half of the team is still working in the office. The other half is continuing from home,” Keilaf told ABC News.
While he declined to give a specific number, he said “many” of his 500 employees have been called up to fight in the war.
It’s estimated that most Israeli startups are seeing 10% to 30% of their workforces mobilized in the war, according to Avi Eyal, co-founder and managing partner of global venture firm Entrée Capital.
“Israel is resilient and so are its startups,” Eyal told ABC News. “Startups are both maintaining their businesses and have been contributing tremendously to the war effort. The outpouring of support is unlike anything I have ever seen.”
Keilaf and his team at Innoviz Technologies are donating bullet proof vests and other equipment to help keep their employees safe on the front lines.
“The guys that are drafted are actually reporting high morale, which makes me very happy to hear. It helps me to bring up my morale because it’s important that they feel safe,” said Keilaf.
His company remains in constant contact with his employees.
“I ask all of the team leaders to talk at least once a day on the phone, not texting, with one of their team members to hear their voice, to understand what’s going on, and to see if they need any help,” he said. “I think we’ll manage. We are probably the most resilient country in the world, so I’m not worried.”
(NEW YORK) — Birkenstock took a big step forward on Wall Street this week, taking the nearly 250-year-old German shoe and sandal maker public.
The footwear, often seen as a counter culture shoe for hippies, and in more recent years influencers, has become must-have footwear for many people, but Birkenstock’s Initial Public Offering, or IPO, which was originally priced at $46 per share, didn’t attract the dress shoe-wearing stock brokers on Wednesday.
Shares opened at $41, near the lower end of its expected range of $44 to $49 set a week prior, as Birkenstock CEO Oliver Reichert rang the opening bell in a room surrounded by traders sporting the opened-toed footwear and others waving the sandals in the air.
Birkenstock Holding Ltd. sold nearly 10.8 million shares in the offering, which raised about $495 million on the day. Its shareholders sold an additional 21.5 million shares, according to the Associated Press.
“Through the strong reputation and universal appeal of our brand — enabling extensive word-of-mouth exposure and outsized earned media value — we have efficiently built a growing global fanbase of millions of consumers that uniquely transcends geography, gender, age and income,” Birkenstock said in a recent regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the AP.
What started out in 1774 as a somewhat frumpy, but functional arch support sandal has transformed into a cult fashion item and billion dollar business, bolstered with support from the recent blockbuster hit “Barbie” when Margot Robbie’s character is forced to choose between high heels or the strappy suede footwear.
In tandem with the opening on Wall Street, Birkenstock hosted three consumer activations in public parks throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.
To highlight New York as “the city that never stops walking,” the brand created what it dubbed “Birkenfields” for a public sensory experience that explored the brand’s nearly 250-year heritage and expertise in foot health.
The global brand is deeply rooted in foot health maintenance as well as a family tradition of shoemaking: Its inventor sought to provide function, quality and tradition as Birkenstock’s core values.
Over 95% of Birkenstock products are assembled in Germany with more than 90% of their materials and components sourced from Europe, ensuring the brand meets “the highest environmental and social standards in the industry by operating state-of-the-art scientific laboratories for materials testing,” according to a company press release.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 3.7% in September compared to a year ago, holding steady from the previous month and running hotter than economists had expected.
While inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9% last summer, price increases remain more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s inflation target.
The data arrives roughly three weeks before the Fed plans to make its latest rate-hike decision. Last month, the Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, noting that it expects to raise rates one more time this year.
Mixed signals from the economy in recent weeks have complicated the Fed’s effort to bring down inflation while averting a recession, an outcome known as a “soft landing.”
A rapid rise in U.S. government bond yields over recent weeks has elevated borrowing costs for consumers seeking mortgage loans and corporations pursuing funds to expand their business. The jump in borrowing expenses threatens to slow economic activity in the coming months.
However, a blockbuster jobs report on Friday showed that employers added 336,000 jobs in September, exceeding economist expectations by nearly twofold and reversing a monthslong hiring slowdown.
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%, a historically low figure, government data showed.
The robust hiring suggests that businesses remain willing to add workers, despite an aggressive series of interest rate hikes over the past year.
The good economic news may pose a difficulty for the Federal Reserve, however, as it tries to cool the economy and slow down price increases.
While the breakneck hiring could alarm central bankers, a simultaneous moderation of wage growth shown by the hiring data could alleviate fears of upward pressure placed on prices in the event of a sharp rise in worker pay.
Wages increased 4.2% on an annual basis last month, exceeding the inflation rate but falling well below the 6% pace recorded in March, data showed.
Despite significant progress over the past year, the Fed remains far from its target inflation rate, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
“The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go,” Powell said.
“Given how far we have come, we’re in a position to proceed carefully as we assess the incoming data and the evolving outlook and risks,” Powell added.
(NEW YORK) — Inflation data to be released on Thursday will show whether price increases cooled or accelerated in September, offering the latest snapshot of expenses faced by U.S. households as the Federal Reserve readies to decide another rate hike next month.
Economists expect consumer prices to have increased 3.6% over the year ending in September.
That finding would mark a slight slowdown from the annual inflation rate recorded the previous month but would remain more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s inflation target.
The data arrives roughly three weeks before the Fed plans to make its latest rate-hike decision. Last month, the Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, noting that it expects to raise rates one more time this year.
Mixed signals from the economy in recent weeks have complicated the Fed’s effort to bring down inflation while averting a recession, an outcome known as a “soft landing.”
A rapid rise in U.S. government bond yields over recent weeks has elevated borrowing costs for consumers seeking mortgage loans and corporations pursuing funds to expand their business. The jump in borrowing expenses threatens to slow economic activity in the coming months.
However, a blockbuster jobs report on Friday showed that employers added 336,000 jobs in September, exceeding economist expectations by nearly twofold and reversing a monthslong hiring slowdown.
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%, a historically low figure, government data showed.
The robust hiring suggests that businesses remain willing to add workers, despite an aggressive series of interest rate hikes over the past year.
The good economic news may pose a difficulty for the Federal Reserve, however, as it tries to cool the economy and slow down price increases.
While the breakneck hiring could alarm central bankers, a simultaneous moderation of wage growth shown by the data on Friday could alleviate fears of upward pressure placed on prices in the event of a sharp rise in worker pay.
Wages increased 4.2% on an annual basis last month, exceeding the inflation rate but falling well below the 6% pace recorded in March, data showed.
Inflation stands well below a peak of about 9% last summer, but the Fed remains far from its target rate, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
“The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go,” Powell said.
“Given how far we have come, we’re in a position to proceed carefully as we assess the incoming data and the evolving outlook and risks,” Powell added.
