Via Benet Wilson, Snoop Dogg will again be permitted into Britain. Wikipedia explains the history On April 26, 2006, Snoop Dogg and members of his entourage were arrested being turned away from British Airways’ first class lounge. Snoop and his party were not allowed to enter the lounge because some of the entourage were flying first class, other members of the party were flying economy class. After the group was escorted outside, they vandalized a duty-free shop by throwing whiskey bottles. Seven police officers were injured in the fracas. After a night in prison, Snoop Dogg and the other men were released on bail ..On May 15, the Home Office decided that Snoop Dogg should be denied entry to the UK for the foreseeable future due to the fracas at Heathrow as well as his…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2008.
A New SPG Small Business Amex Offer?
I received a marketing email this morning for the Starwood Preferred Guest small business American Express card. I’ve written about offers for it in the past, 10,000 points with first purchase and another 15,000 points for spending $15,000 on the card during the first six months (plus fee waived the first year). This morning’s email offered the usual 10,000 points with first purchase and 1,000 points for each additional card ordered for the account up to 5,000 points. So fewer total points, but no spending requirement for the extra bonus points. Planned on blogging it, as low spend readers might easily benefit. The link in the offer, though, didn’t mention the 5,000 points for additional cardholders — the link offered instead the usual offer of 10,000 points + 15,000 more based on spending in the…
New Delta iDine Bonus – Up to 5000 Miles
Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, the new Delta iDine (Rewards Network/Dining for Miles) bonus is a pretty good one, registration required: Earn 1,000 bonus miles when you spend $50, plus 1,000 more miles for every additional $100 you spend cumulatively (including tax and tip) at participating restaurants between 4/28/08 and 6/30/08 – up to 5,000 bonus miles. That’ll make me switch my dines from the credit cards I have registered with United and American over to the one I have registered with the Delta program until I’ve spent $450 at participating restaurants.
The Phoenician: A Beautiful Property With Some Things To Learn About Starwood Preferred Guest
The Phoenician is a lovely property, and in short worth of both its Starwood “Luxury Collection” branding and its recent fifth diamond. The facilities are beautiful and well-maintained. The service is prompt and courteous. And, for a property of this caliber, I didn’t even find the food offerings to be especially overpriced. Not cheap, mind you, but not really more expensive than better Westin properties. If there was a short-coming, it was in this property’s understanding and recognition of Starwood Preferred Guest program benefits. My status didn’t appear to be properly reflected in my reservation, and I asked the hotel to correct that which they told me they did. In advance of my arrival, I received a concierge email that contained someone else’s reservation — but that showed my Starwood Preferred Guest number with the…
The Next Airline to Fold
Eos files for bankruptcy and ceases operations. Eos Airlines, an all-business-class carrier that flies between Kennedy International Airport and London, said that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and would cease operations by Monday. The airline, which was founded in 2005, is planning to operate its final flights between London’s Stansted airport and Kennedy on Sunday.
What Wines Onboard?
Silverjet has been promoting their in-flight wine expertise as part of projecting an overall luxurious inflight experience. The PR folks are sharing the following thoughts on wine. First, that the taste of wine onboard is influenced by the atmospheric pressure, low humidity and vibration of the cabin, all affecting how efficiently our taste buds work. This concluded that while [t]here has been very little scientific research into this area… we have found is that wines tend to ‘thin out’ in the air, with both tannins and acidity being accentuated. As a result, tart, angular wines make a bad choice, whereas ripe, fruit-driven wines tend to show much better. In practice this means that Passengers often demand quite classic wine styles on the ground, such as white Burgundies; red Bordeaux; lean, mineral Chablis; and structured Clarets. They…
A Few Quick Thoughts on Last Night’s Freddie Awards
Just a few brief thoughts on last night’s Freddie Awards. Marriott did exceptionally well this year. I’m not sure why. There haven’t been any real improvements to their program that I can point to. I can only figure that it’s their get out the vote efforts (of which they did quite a lot) rather than a reflection of substantive improvements. Starwood did well in Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East, Africa. But they really didn’t excel in the Americas. I’m not really sure why the split. Starwood didn’t even win for best award redemption in the Americas, which is just bizarre since they really do structurally offer the best award redemption. Hilton has introduced a system to match Starwood, but presumably too late to influence this year’s Freddie Awards. If the voting public is paying attention…
Air Koryo’s New Tupolov
North Korea Economy Watch has a photo of the new Air Koryo Tupolov parking in Pyongyang. It apparently goes into scheduled service May 1. Elsewhere, the blog points out that Air Koryo acquired the plane in order to continue being permitted to fly to Beijing — China is playing safety regulator, taking on the role of ensuring that planes landing at its airports are airworthy (contra this recent this recent AP piece which suggests that Air Koryo’s acquisition of a new plane points to its success as an airline).
USAirways Business Mastercard with 20,000 Mile Signup Bonus
Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Juniper Bank’s co-branded USAirways credit card options now include a business card offering 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase along with a $79 annual fee. The card comes with a free day pass to the USAirways club and the ability to earn elite qualifying miles based on spending. Small business cards are generally open to pretty much anyone (“Your Name & Associates” – everyone has a business).
Air Traffic Delays Are Awful, Everything Else is Worse
Economic growth in general and deregulation in particular have brought about lower real airline ticket prices and substantial increases in passenger traffic. Infrastructure hasn’t kept pace and air traffic control hasn’t kept pace. And so we face congested airports and airspace. This frustrates travelers, who live in a world of tradeoffs but take what they have as given and long for what they’ve given up. Richard Posner is one such business traveler. And the usually sober, sometimes brilliant, and certainly prolific judge and scholar offers up an unusually misguided rant on why he believes “airline service is so bad” over at the Becker-Posner Blog, Becker rebuts. Posner lays out a myriad of unsupported gripes and mixes in blatantly incorrect facts, leading him to circle around some rather silly notions about re-regulating the aviation industry. Becker…
