In one of my least-read posts of the month, I wrote about business booking and travel expense management company Concur working to allow consumers to book travel on airline websites while still leveraging negotiated corporate discounts, and handling expense tracking. Gee, I wonder why that wasn’t sexy? (This post was read fewer times, even, than the one about my regulatory comment filed with the Department of Transportation about new proposed transparency rules for ancillary fees. Now that means it was unpopular. Egads.) Still, it’s sort of important. I don’t think anyone actually likes Concur, but it’s a giant. They’ve been acquired by SAP. And Concur users, you have an ‘out’. An expense reporting tool that I actually find to be innovative — Expensify, whose motto is “Expense Reports That Don’t Suck” — has an offer…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2014.
American Announces 4 New Cities Served from Miami: What it Tells Us About Their Strategy
American has announced a flight expansion from Miami. They’re adding once-daily service starting March 5 to: Austin Kansas City Salt Lake City San Antonio All will be operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and will bring the total of cities served from Miami to over 130. Each of the flight pairs is an early morning (or in the case of Salt Lake City, redeye) departure for Miami and an evening (7:50pm or 7:55pm) return. That means they’re looking at these flights as bringing passengers to Miami rather than serving the local Miami market. These flights also work well to take passengers from these cities through Miami to some of their Latin American destinations, and are good for returning from those destinations that have daytime service to Miami. It’s interesting to see American building up Miami. It’s…
Is American Airlines Creating a New Revenue-Based Top Elite Status Tier?
American Airlines held a dinner in New York for Concierge Key members. Concierge Key is status has for spend and traveler influencers. When it first started it didn’t confer any elite status in the AAdvantage program, now it comes with Executive Platinum status and Admirals Club membership. I believe Concierge Key members no longer pay cash co-pays if using miles to confirm an upgrade. If I had to guess, I’d think that there are between 10,000 – 15,000 Concierge Key members but I am not certain of this. Unlike United’s Global Services, it doesn’t directly put someone at this level higher up on waitlists such as the upgrade queue. (There are reports of inventory management opening up confirmed upgrade space on occasion, but otherwise a Concierge Key member doesn’t generally trump an Executive Platinum on…
Starwood Pulls Their Terms and Conditions Changes Off The Website
Yesterday morning I wrote about Starwood’s new terms and conditions. Lots of cleanup, new sections and changes related to the introduction of SPG Pro, there were also some rather odd additions like an agreement that any Starwood member won’t challenge the chain’s trademarks and that gifting awards to others when you’re not staying won’t earn stay or night credit towards status for either the gifter or for the guest. These were terms that were set to go into effect on October 15. And no doubt that will happen, at least in some measure similar to what was posted yesterday. But this morning the terms and conditions have reverted to the older May 2013 revision. The changes that had been posted to Starwood’s website are gone. Either a technical glitch, or someone at SPG decided the…
Everyone at December FTU Gets Elite Status. FTU Advanced Sold Out, But Tickets Remain for the Main Sessions
Frequent Traveler University, Washington DC area December 5-7 On Sunday, Frequent Traveler University launched for December 5-7 in Northern Virginia — just outside of DC, and down the street from Washington’s National Airport. This will be the largest gathering ever of frequent flyers, held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. There are actually two events held simultaneously — Frequent Traveler University and the smaller Frequent Traveler University Advanced. While the two events will share some speakers, they will be separated by several floors at the hotel. Part of what will make this event so large is a partnership with USA Today. There should be some recognizable names added to the event soon with their help. Already I’ve mentioned the following speakers: Ben Schlappig, One Mile at a Time Greg Davis-Kean, Frequent Miler Stefan Krasowski, Rapid…
Thai Government Initiative Cracks Down on Bad Thai Food Around the World
Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was so bothered by the state of Thai food around the world that she raised the issue at a Cabinet meeting. She has since been deposed by a military coup but her work lives on. The Thai Delicious Committee was formed and it is rolling out a new robot that will taste Thai food and declare when it’s bad. Diplomats and dignitaries have been invited to witness the debut of a machine that its promoters say can scientifically evaluate Thai cuisine, telling the difference, for instance, between a properly prepared green curry with just the right mix of Thai basil, curry paste and fresh coconut cream, and a lame imitation. A boxy contraption filled with sensors and microchips, the so-called e-delicious machine scans food samples to produce a chemical signature,…
Delta Limiting Points Transfers Into Skymiles Starting January 1
American Express has announced limits on transferring points to Delta starting January 1. The squarely blame a broad policy change at Delta for this. Effective January 1, 2015 Delta is making a program-wide change limiting the number of points that can be transferred into a SkyMiles account from any partner loyalty program, including the Membership Rewards program. As a result, there will be 2 important changes that will limit the total number of Membership Rewards® points that you can redeem for Delta SkyMiles: (1) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred out of any Membership Rewards account into one or more Delta SkyMiles accounts will be limited to 250,000 points per calendar year, and (2) the total number of Membership Rewards points that can be transferred into any individual Delta SkyMiles…
US Airways Eliminates the Ability to Buy Miles and Segments Towards Status
US Airways used to let you straight-up buy elite quaifying miles or segments. With the Dividend Miles program there was frequently no need to ‘mileage run’ or take extra flights just for the miles in order to reach status, it was usually cheaper just to have them charge your credit card. In fact, you could go from 1 mile flown to top tier Chairmans Preferred (100,000 mile flyer) for a flat $2999. Compare that to Delta where they want you to fly 125,000 miles with minimum ticket revenue of $12,500. US Airways had a history of unconventional means of qualifying for elite status. At the end of 2006 they offered an ‘everything counts’ promo where even miles from sending flowers and renting cars counted towards elite status. That way they wouldn’t have mileage runners taking…
Starwood’s New Terms and Conditions Go Into Effect October 15. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Starwood Preferred Guest’s terms and conditions announce changes going into effect in two weeks, This version of the terms and conditions for the SPG Program will become effective on October 15, 2014 The change to Starwood terms and conditions is mostly a clean-up of language, some clarifications on what third party rates won’t earn points or stay credit, and changes to accommodate the introduction of SPG Pro in place of points-earning for companies (and other programs). However, there are some items worth knowing that are now spelled out directly or that have changed and may affect the way you earn with the program.
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