Monthly Archives for February 2016.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Ivanka Trump is a hotelier. But she clearly knows the ins and outs of aviation, too: Her father used to own an airline, she has flown in her father’s 757, and there’s even a navigation waypoint named for her: IVNKA ONE.
So I couldn’t wait to see what she could teach me about scoring upgrades.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
American’s revenue management has been notoriously stingy about releasing seats for premium cabin international travel over the past three years.
However American has been going to lengths to improve their premium cabin award availability. We’ve seen that with transatlantic space, with Asia flights, and even with Auckland, New Zealand.
And now we’re starting to see much better award availability with South America.
One hotel loyalty program executive relayed the common refrain she got from hotels in the chain when they first began rolling out a breakfast benefit for their top tier elites — “you mean we have to feed them, too?”
And yes – they do — because breakfast is a common benefit of hotel elite programs, at least at the time tier, and it’s something that the better programs need to offer in order to remain competitive.
The most coveted hotel elite perk is upgrades, especially to suites. But perhaps the second most coveted hotel elite status perk is breakfast.
A few commenters have argued that Visa charges more for foreign currency conversion than MasterCard — that a Visa with ‘no foreign currency conversion fees’ isn’t really because Visa marks up their exchange rate by 1%.
I’m testing this out on a few trips. I mentioned in the comments that I’m experimenting with comparisons, and I’ve had a couple of folks ask about the status of this in the comments and also by email, so I thought I’d provide an update.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Maybe you’re an ex-military pilot who led a sqaudron over Macho Grande and lost many men. You’ve vowed never to fly again. But you find yourself onboard a commercial jetliner with the cockpit crew knocked out after they’ve eaten the fish.
Or maybe you don’t have any flying experience at all, but you’ve got to safely land your airline’s 737 anyway.
Delta pilot Tim Morgan made a video explaining everything you’d need to from the moment you enter the cockpit.
A Tennessee man
Back in October a flight was delayed 11 hours after a passenger became unruly, stripped naked, and requested sex from a flight attendant. In May a man, angry at US Airways for overbooking his flight to Jamaica, stripped naked and walked around the Charlotte airport for an hour to protect the airline’s overbooking….
Hotel upgrades have a great deal of discretion. While rooms may be pre-assigned to guests, the front desk agent can usually make a decision (within certain bounds set by the hotel — the best suites may require a manager’s approval).
There are many reasons they might upgrade you — your status, because you’ve been dis-serviced in some way, because you tipped them. Here are the techniques that work.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
