phil lebeau has more. >> reporter: for frequent fliers change is in the air.quickly taking more flights and more money to achieve higher status with certain airlines, and increasingly, cashing in your miles for an upgrade or a free ticket is becoming tougher. >> gone will be the days when you're measured by how many miles you fly. hello to the days when you're measured by how much money you spend. >> right now virgin america, jetblue and southwest award frequent flier miles based on how much you spend on a ticket and not how far you fly. it's a move delta will also be making next year. so delta frequent flyers who achieve different levels of status after flying just 25,000 miles will eventually need to not only fly that far, but also spend at least their 2500 with the airline to reach the highest level of loyalty, diamond status, you'll need to fly 125,000 miles and spend at least 12,500 in a year. >> now you can't earn based on models flown on cheaper tickets. it will take more expensive tickets to earn the higher levels required for elite status. >> why are

phil lebeau with the story. phil? we're really seeing a real drop-off in minivan sales this year. take a look at how much they're down. down 10% in a market where sales overall are up 8.4%. and where you look at the real difference with minivans, it all comes down to the fact that there's only seven models that are for sale rate now. compare that with crossover utility vehicles. there are more than 60 models for sale. and as a result, suv or cuv sales or sport wagon sales are up 15.2% this year. mainly it's driven by increased choices, increased options, and better fuel economy, and you can get a lot more in usual or unusual options in your suv or cuv these days. >> i think that, you know, really that whole wagon concept has really evolved a lot and a lot of the designers are sleeker. they're still, essentially, wagons at the end of the day, but designers have really taken the liberty to make them look a lot cooler. >> even those cuv sales are up, the auto stocks, well, they have really not been performing as much as

phil lebeau knows. >> this is what you have when you have an airline stripped out of a lot of capacity and frankly trying to drive profits for every seat. for not only to gain certain status, but to caption those miles. tighter capacity driven by the consolidation, smaller airports, and at the same time these mergers have learninged partnerships and people moving into one program, and there you have a number of people trying to cash in at the same time. >> there's a lot more competition, because frankly there's just more members of the programs. 31 years later and they're still growing at 10% to 11% a year. so today you're competing for benefits not just with other frequent fliers, but with frequent buyers. that makes it difficult for anybody to be called an airli airline's best customer. >>> so here are the changes we're talking about. delta is a perfect example. right now, your miles are accrued based on how far you're flying, then you reached a certain level of status. starting in 2014, it's not only how far you fly, but how much money you spent with the airline. a minute numbs of 2

phil lebeau joins us now with the man who needs no introduction, dr. z. the chairman and ceo of daimler joining us from the geneva motor show. dr. z., thank you for joining us this morning. i want to start with the question that's getting a lot of attention, particularly in europe, and that's the extension of your contract for three years and not five years, and a fair amount of speculation that investors for daimler are starting to get a little frustrated that under your tenure, daimler has not performed as well as its european competitors. what do you say to that? >> these are two issues. the first one is that i just got a contract extension which reached four years through the end of '16 from today. i think that's a unanimous vote of confidence to continue leading this company. on the other hand, the investors who are obviously not involved in this discussion or decision, i was just on the road from frankfurt to london to boston to new york and we got very encouraging feedback from our investors, who do believe that the strategy we're taking is the rig

phil lebeau is here. >> hear the lion war, places a huge order with airbus. why did they choose airbus over bowing? that story is coming up next on canth power lunch." splitting its stocks. jarden splitting three for two. coleman, oyster. shares of jarden over 60%. today down just a fraction on the trading session. franklin electric manufacturers and distributes. the stock splitting 2 for 1. it's up pomore than 30%. >>> a big win for airbus over boeing. securing a $24 billion order from indonesian carrier lionar air. phil lebeau has this for us in chicago. >> this is a big deal because lion air is a long time boeing customer. today it has decided it is going to place a big order with airbus. this order comes to $24 billion, 234 planes. a good chunk of them being a new a320 fuel-efficient narrow bodies. it was announced in france. there you see the president of france along with the ceo of lion air and executives from airbus. huge deal for airbus because they are winning over a boeing customer. but in terms of recent big orders look at this list here. lion air

but if it does kick in, that's huge for auto makers. >> thank you phil lebeau.ope to see you on the next flight in your banana suit doing the harlem shake. anything less would be disappointing. >>> up next, fast-food fights with stocks you can sink your teeth into. >>> and you heard of ever notes? put it on your radar now. ceo says it'll be the next google. >>> and why don't we just show the harlem shake again? why not. we are having such a fun time. it is friday. [ indistinct shou] ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ >>> we're on countdown fo

phil lebeau is live in chicago. phil? >> sue, i had one, a lot of my friends had one, minivans.y used to be part of living in suburban america. those days are gone. what's replacing it? the wagon. that's coming up on "power lunch." [ male announcer ] every famous curve has an equally thrilling, lesser-known counterpart. conquer them with the exhilarating is 250. get great values on your favorite lexus models during the command performance sales event. this is the pursuit of perfection. redesigned site has this new score planner tool with these cool sliders. this one lets us know what happens if someone checks our credit. oh. this one lets us know what happens if we pay off our loans. yeah. what's this one do? i dunno. ♪every rose has it's thorn ♪just like every night ♪has it's dawn score planner is free to everyone. free score applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com bret michaels slider still in beta. >>> just >>> just a fantastic story to tell you about. president obama visiting a high-tech conference during thinks trip to jerusalem today. he met two americans who were r

cnbc's phil lebeau has the latest on what this may mean for boeing. phil? >> melissa, this is a path for boeing to follow to hopefully get the 787 dreamliner back in service, perhaps four, five, six weeks from now, once they've done some test flights, when they've done more analysis of the tests they're going to run in the subsequent weeks. here's essentially what the faa has set out for boeing. it has approved boeing plan for fixing the dreamliner battery system. that plan calls for redesigning the lithium ion batteries, redesigning the case that holds the battery unit, and also calling for great er checks, if um, so that the crews that work on the dreamliner will be able to better monitor if there are any problems with these lithium ion batteries. there are going to be two dreamliners that will be going up for test flights. and there are specific test criteria that boeing will have to meet before the faa says you know what, we think this fix works, we approve it, all completely across the board, and then eventually you see those fixes put into the 50 drea

phil "first class" lebeau taking flight for news chicago. >> if you're looking to be upgraded on someseats, that will be tougher as well. take a look at the transcontinental business class routes. we're primarily talking about los angeles and san francisco to new york and boston. in general the fares for business class about 50% higher than coach, and it makes up about 11% of the seats on flights making those runs. well, united is now offering live flat seats for its business class in certain transcontinental routes. they just started it this week from los angeles to new york. the flights will have fewer business and first class seats going from about 36 down to 28 just lie flat seats. why are the airlines doing this? this comes down to trying to have that premium service between the coasts so they can increase revenue. this is all about getting more money from those higher paying passengers. transcontinental premium service is targeting in specific corporate customers in industries like financial services and the entertainment industry who will pay for the lie flat seats. >> those in

phil lebeau is here with more. business to be in and now the stocks go. what's behind it? >> the airlines are finally turning things around. look at what's happening with revenue per available seat mile this is the metric you want to look at. in the month of february, all positive. look at united. what's happening here? the airlines are benefitting because of tighter capacity. they have stripped out their larger planes. they have culled their schedule. so you have got a higher percentage of seats that are filled on the planes. and the airlines have holding steady on the air fares. they have only had one hike this year but they are benefitting because of what is happening with jet fuel prices. generally speaking, year-over-year, it is still roughly at the same place that it was. that's why when you look at the airline index, what a move this has had. you will see that all of the airlines have benefitted and that's pushing the index up. given the fact that some of these guys were up. so i'm not surprised to see a bit

we'll send it over to phil lebeau. >> joining us from gm headquarters, here, you had a month in february, you increased sales by 7.2%. all of your brands were up on the month. but there's been so much focus on the sequester and whether or not the economy can take a hit. what were you seeing in showrooms from the consumer last month? >> phil, we saw some pretty decent business throughout the month. obviously some of the bad weather had an impact. even in places like the northeast that were particularly hit hard, they came back strong in the back half of the month. so, you know, we feel pretty good about that 7.2%. up over 12 on a selling day adjusted basis. we feel pretty good. >> your full size pickup sales up 28%. you knocked off a number of days. you're down to 97-day supply in terms of your inventory. are you noticing that the small contractor, the construction worker, are they starting to rotate more into the showroom? >> absolutely, phil. with housing, you know, continuing to do well, and the availability of consum

phil lebeau covering the story forness chicago. phil? >> tyler, here is the report from ntsb.asically a 5 factual update about the investigation and when we look into the fire back in january, in boston, here is the bottom line according to the ntsb. they are unable to find a root cause behind the 787 dreamliner battery fire. no recommendation from ntsb at this point. investigation continues, by the way, ntsb holding a forum and hearing regarding lithium ion batteries and 787 certification process. that is happening next month. meanwhile, beauing is waiting for the faa to approve the suggested fixes that it presented to the faa last week. the faa, i'm told, is expected to approve a condition yl approval of the fixes perhaps as early as next week. might see the dreamliner groundings lifted by the end of april or beginning of may. and that's one reason why you look at shares of boeing up more than 2.5%, sue. we haven't seen shares of boeing trading at this level since may of 2011. sue, back to you. >> wow, phil, thank you very much. you know, four out of five dentist recommend i

phil lebeau knows. >> really have not seen a lot of storms that have hit the bottom line.hen you look at passenger revenue and it continues to go up. it has been posting positive numbers in the month of january and february. airline passenger numbers up in large part because ancillary fees continue to bring in plenty of money for the airlines. the airlines brought in $36 billion in things like baggage fee fees, where you are sitting, when you board. they have also been able to keep their fares relatively in check. we have not seen a lot of fare sales. are the airlines jacking up the fares? they haven't been able to. you will see that the average air fare here in the united states, while it has gone up slightly, it has not been huge. delta, wow. look at that return over the last six months, up 76%. when you compare alaska versus the dow, no comparison at all. til tylor, analysts are expecting a posted profit. >> phil, a quick follow up. fares may not have gone up very much but fees have. >> and that's where they're making their money. and that's the different between some c

off to phil lebeau we go. phil? >> all day weave been talking about february sales being solid but not spectacular. now the research firm auto data has calculated total sales coming in at a pace of 15.38 million for the month of february. that is roughly in line with estimates and compares with a pace of 14.5 a year ago. again, maria, february auto sales, the pace 15.38 million. maria, back to you. >> all right, phil, thank you so much. well, the deadline a little more than seven hours from right now. there's no deal to avoid $85 billion in automatic spending cuts. president obama spoke earlier today, and he hinted there may not be a deal for months. that's right, months he said. let's go live. john harwood in washington and get the latest on this. over to you, john. >> reporter: the last-minute deal between president obama and bipartisan congressional leaders in washington did not produce a deal. we didn't expect it to, and what you have is a public pressure campaign being put on by both sides. president obama came

. >> some very interesting big news in the auto sector coming in right now and phil lebeau has it liverom chicago. >> they surveyed 91,000 vehicle owners and this is a reflection of how people feel about their auto service centers. should be a little bit surprising but it's not when you figure that dealerships are putting more money into their centers. 79% of those surveyed said they will have vehicles serviced at the dealership. they realize this is the way to build brand loyalty. the top five, gmc, mini, buick, cheverolet and volkswagon. this is particularly interesting when you look at luxury automakers. the luxury dealerships, for them, their customer service rates higher than with mass brands. luxury dealers have been targeting service centers for some time. lexus, cadillac, jaguar, acura and infinity. this is the area where the dealerships are making a difference in terms of customer loyalty and building profits over the long term. >> i think that's exactly true. if i get good service from a dealership, i am more likely to go to that dealership to buy my next car. tell us what th

phil lebeau with the story. phil?his is all about airlines trying to get more revenue out of their transcontinental business class seats. here's what's going on. this week, united started roll outing out plans that have lie flat seats in their business class, but this is only for those flights between los angeles, san francisco, and new york. and by the way, they will have fewer seats in business class, with this configuration. other airlines are following. they've got delta at the end of the month, jetblue announced they'll have something next year. and this is all about targeting those premium service customers, especially in those lucrative markets like san francisco, los angeles, new york, and washington, d.c. as you take a look at the airline stocks today, note that they are all up, maria. and we are at a six-area high. a six-year high for the airline index. it's had a heck of a run in the last year, maria. up 51%. in the end, maria, this is all about doing more to win over those corporate customers in those lucr

on the auto front, phil lebeau, reporting 15 million vehicles after consumer reports when released itss and brands. not a single american car made the top ten. wow! kayla? ? >> maybe i should get a nonu.s. car. kate thinks i should get a coup. something small. >> something more fun to drive. you don't have kids. baggage is an issue. you can park on the street. >> are you saying i have a lot of baggage? >> well, when you travel, you know. i was raised by my parents it buy u.s., that was a big enl ethic in my household. but we have saab. >> what happened? >> i guess the quality wasn't there. price point wasn't there. so we went another route. >> i thought housing recovered. i thought we bottomed and we are on the up and up. >> if you look at the prices from the crisis, still down 2%. if the have the memory of what your home was work at the peak, you can't come to grips of selling for ma much lower. i think that's why -- >> and you read headlines, saying, prices are going up. >> but it isn't a relative increase where they were. >> what about the beat cover? >> the other thing that distort

let's get to phil lebeau as the to what is behind this, phil. >> it's all about the monthly payment,a look at the statistics coming out from jd power, their analysis of retail sales in march show that nearly one out of every three car buyers were taking out loans, at least six years in length. that's the highest they have ever recorded, up basically 2% from where it was in march of last year. and, again, this is all about that lower monthly payment. so what if you're stretching it out over six or seven years, is what car buyers are thinking. the average monthly loan payment in the fourth quarter, that's the most recent data according to experian, $468. they're keeping it under that $500 threshold. new vehicle prices are steadily rising. that's because there's more demand, more content in the vehicles, and that's forcing people to say, well, listen, if i'm going to buy a car, i'm likely going to spend over $30,000. in fact, the average transaction price according to true car in february was almost $31,000. as you take a look at shares of gm and ford and really when you compare it with

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phil lebeau, i have to imagine that in the wake of yesterday's lion air news, the ryanair news has gotdoes, and it's not completely unexpected. we've been expecting this announce am. let's take a live picture of waldorf-astoria and this is michael o'leary, the ceo of r n ryanair, announcing why it will buy the next generation and he started off by saying you want to know why we're successful? we only fly 737s and we know how to run our business at peak efficiency and the president and ceo of boeing will be talking in just a little bit. let's go down with what this deal means for boeing and for ryanair and for boeing it is a huge deal. 175 of the next generation 737s. the list price is 15.6 billion, but as we say, whenever we, announce these aircraft sales they never pay list and it will be a big discount from the 15.6 billion. some of the new models will be replacing current 737s by ryan air and this sale keeps a longtime customer with boeing. ryanair is to europe what with southwest is here in the united states and only flying 737s and that's what makes the deal work for them. boeing

right to phil lebeau we go. >> breaking news from the federal aviation administration.proved bog ed boeing's for a certification program to certify the new 787 dreamliner battery. this proposal includes a number of tests that boeing will have to meet before the faa can lift the grounding. there will be more test flights, more testing, and if boeing meets those expectations for the new battery fixes, maria, then we could see the grounding lifted, perhaps over the next several weeks, maybe by mid-to-late april. maria, back to you. >> phil, thanks so much. >>> up next, buy one, get one free. suppose you get a deal like that from a college? are market forces finally impacting the cost of higher education? senior correspondent scott cohn now with the story. over to you, scott. >> maria, in all our reporting on the crushing college debt situation, this is a topic that keeps coming up and keeps making people angry. college tuition rising at many times the rate of inflation. why is it? is it because government's support for higher education is down and the schools have to make

phil lebeau is working on that. >> we're waiting for that report. report coming two months a of the japan airline's battery fire on the runway at the logan airport. we do not expect to see any major revelations in this report. we believe ntsb regulators will be detailing what they've been doing over the last month, but we will not be seeing them say here is a root cause of that battery fire. we'll pass itong to you as soon as we have the report. take a look at shares of boeing, up over $81 a share, up more than 3%. carl, back to you. >> phil, and as far as we know, production schedules have remained unchanged through all of this, right? >> they are the same and, in fact, earlier this week, ray conner, was at an investor conference in new york and said they are making plans to move up to seven dream liners per month. once they get their approval for the fixes they have put forth in the faa and they believe that'll come within the next couple of days. once that happens, they will be moving very quickly to fix those dream liners that have already been

phil lebeau joins us with more. >> they are getting tighter, simon and it is the new frontier. this is where the airlines are trying to make sure they're not give away seats if they don't have to. that means fewer frequent flier seats are available and it comes down to the fact that they've stripped out so much capacity that the frequent flier programs have become more restricted and it means there are fewer award seats that will be awarded by the airlines. you add in the fact that you have mergers and partnerships increasing the number of frequent flyers in a particular program it means those programs have to become more slackive about what it takes to achieve certain levels of status. delta is a perfect example. here's the way it is currently and it's based on how many miles you fly. 25,000, 50,000, et cetera and you attain a certain level of status. while starting in 2014, not only will you have to fly that many miles, it's also going to be looking at how much you're actually spending and the net ticket price, by

phil lebeau has details on that. ual, carl, because historically the airlines have always struggled in the fours quarter. last week delta said they expect to turn a profit in the first quarter. first time since year 2000. look at why. when you look at february, and revenue per available seat mile, what's known as prasm, is all positive. why? a couple of factors in favor of the airlines. first of all, tighter capacity because the airlines have stripped out a number of larger airplanes and replaced them are regional jets. higher percentage of seats being filled and the airfares have been holding steady. it hiked this year. haven't seen any airfare sales. on the fuel side, the cost side of the equation, the airlines are benefiting from basically moderate jet fuel prices. gone up a little bit but haven't been spiking as many have feared and the fuel surcharges. remember those put in place last year? guess what, they're still in place. airlines are benefiting there. that's when you look at the airline index, it has been of

. >> phil lebeau, thank you for that story. now to shares of fedex.us with his take on the quarter. great to have you with us. overwaiting shares of fedex. are you willing to give fedex a pass? >> thanks for having us on. it's really challenging environment right now. what we're seeing is the retail economy is not doing that well. so fedex is having a tough go in the near term. it sounds like we'll get more aircraft retardants out of the fleet. that will be good for the cost structure. traffic up 20% this quarter. the ground business was up 10%. so doing very well if we can shrink the air fleet it becomes a much better story. >> you can shrink the air fleet, brandon, but it will have to contend with the fact that consumers, and fedex and ups talked about this in january. consumers are choosing cheaper ways to ship. they're willing to let things ship over a longer period of time. maybe longer in terms of the type of air they choose. and so i'm wondering if they're doing enough to combat the secular change in the business. >> well, that's a real critici

phil lebeau is in chicago with the details. >> the importance of this order is not only its size formes from. so let's break down this deal. lion air announcing it with france along with the president of france and airbus executives and it comes out to 240 planes list price at $24 billion and let's be clear and they will not be paying $24 billion and there are severe discounties and lion air ordering the a-320 planes to meet demand in asia and ryan air estimates traffic will be up 21% in that part of the world. lion air presents the first airbus orders after years of being a longtime and faithful boeing customer and it places a huge order just a few years ago and airbus will build the a-320 which by the way, goes into production late 2015 about the first time the first time it's delivered and look at the comparison between these two companies when it comes to orders for the two narrow-bodied fuel-efficient planes and more than 2,000 have been ordered and far fewer of 1185. compared to boeing year to date. no comparison at all. abs has been up more than 40%. boeing has started to tick

phil lebeau here at post 9 to talk about that. >> a lot of people have said the airline industry is changingeeted in a question that becky quick then read to warren buffett essentially saying would you buy an airline? would you invest in an airline? listen to what he had to say. >> the airline business has been a terrible business over time. if they ever got down to where there was one airline, it would be a very good business. maybe if they get down to where it's two. it's got all the ingredients of a bad business. >> i saw that while i was flying here. i tweeted it out. and henry harteveld who is an analyst, and he wrote back, listen. the old way the airline business maybe buffett's right, yes. but the new model, new, smarter pricing, maybe not. and a lot of people retweeted what henry had to say to me. saying you know, he's right. the interesting thing to keep in mind is there's no doubt that the airline index and airline stocks have become a darling for investors over the last three to six months. look at the xal. it is up to its highest point since 2007. then when you look at specific s