Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for June 2015.

A Nose Under the Tent that Could Help Bring Competition to the US Airline Market

by Gary Leff

Jun 25 2015

European discount carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle has both lower costs than their US and European counterparts and lower fares. They fly to the US, and are awaiting approval for their even lower-cost Irish subsidiary to do so. US airlines (and labor groups) want to stop Norwegian also because of the airline’s lower costs.

Today’s big airline news is that Norwegian has announced that they will separately take advantage of Europe-US Open Skies agreements by flying from French Caribbean islands to the US using new Boeing 737s.

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American Airlines Actually Sells International First Class Seats to Hong Kong

by Gary Leff

Jun 25 2015

Remarks by American Airlines’ Doug Parker and Andrew Nocella in Hong Kong celebrating the first anniversary of service there shed some light on the carrier’s current direction.

Making a big deal of a Hong Kong service anniversary — such that they sent the CEO and the Chief Marketing Officer — signal strongly that American values the Hong Kong route, and their Asia Pacific expansion.

They share thoughts on international first class, Tokyo Haneda, and the dispute with the Mideast carriers.

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No, Hyatt’s Confirmed Suite Upgrades Aren’t Capacity Controlled. Why Do You Ask?

by Gary Leff

Jun 24 2015

There’s been some confusion online about Hyatt’s suite upgrades, and especially about whether and how certain discounted rates can get into suites. There’s an incorrect notion out there, for instance, that capacity controls apply to Diamond Suite Upgrades when used in conjunction with cash and points awards.

But to correct the misunderstanding, I first need to walk through Hyatt’s suite upgrade options, how confirming upgrades work at a hotel level, and how cash and points awards work. Then it may make more sense why — as I have confirmed with Hyatt — there aren’t any capacity controls on confirmed suites with Hyatt.

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A Sneaky Way Hotels Can Keep You From Booking Reward Nights: the Hyatt Regency San Francisco

by Gary Leff

Jun 24 2015

Most hotel chain loyalty programs offer rooms on points whenever a ‘standard room’ is available for sale.

The trick, though, is what a hotel defines as a standard room. Most members think of it as the ‘most common room’. Some hotels have played games with this. There might be just a couple of suboptimal rooms, that may not even be sold, but that could be called award rooms by a hotel looking to limit the number of guests staying on points.

Or they could try what it appears the Hyatt Regency San Francisco is doing…

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Hilton Changing Reward Categories of Some Hotels July 8, and It’s 9-1 Increases

by Gary Leff

Jun 24 2015

After Hilton’s dramatic award chart gutting of nearly two years ago, there weren’t huge changes again this year.

Hilton decided to change the way they made changes to how they re-assign hotels to award categories. Instead of an annual change to tons of hotels (a schedule they really weren’t wedded to in the past anyway) they decided they would make rolling changes throughout the year. And instead of informing all members proactively of these changes, they would just post them on a web page in the name of ‘transparency’.

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Lufthansa First Class Award Space Available!

by Gary Leff

Jun 23 2015

Lufthansa first class award space is almost never made available to partner airlines more than 14 days in advance of travel. If you want to book Lufthansa first class you either need to be using Lufthansa’s own Miles & More points (they’re a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest) or waiting until close-in to departure and changing flights.

However…

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The Challenges and Solutions for Booking Australia Awards With American AAdvantage Miles

by Gary Leff

Jun 23 2015

A reader asks, “Any idea when AA will allow award booking on their planned flights to Australia? Do you think they are likely to offer more than 2 C award seats per flight? (I’m trying to figure out how to get a family of 4 to Australia with AA miles in business class, a dad you know, Quantas never releases more than 2 seats per flight)”

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