Monthly Archives for July 2016.
There’s reporting that the Citi Prestige Card is about to reduce its signup bonus next Tuesday. Now is the time to get the card if you’ve even been on the fence about it.
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.
Most often we’ve seen space open up to Paris and to London. Sometimes it’s it’s other cities in Europe. Six weeks ago we saw wide open space on most routes to those two cities.
That ‘wave’ is gone, however there’s one flight in particular that has really really good award availability right now.
Both Citibank and Barclaycard will be issuing new American AAdvantage cards as part of a new deal announced today. Back in April I couldn’t predict one bank to win exclusivity over the other and it turns out that was a better prediction than I had realized.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the man who was charged with “abusive sexual contact” after inappropriate touching of an unaccompanied minor on an American Airlines Dallas – Portland flight. Apparently the flight wasn’t full but he chose the middle seat next to the young girl rather than the empty aisle in his own row. Creepy.
I concluded that there are awful passengers in the sky, because there are awful people in the world. Flying is increasingly democratic. A broad cross section of people travel side-by-side across the country every day, and that includes — and necessarily will include — a small minority of awful people, and a small minority of people who do awful things.
That’s not satisfying, but the truth is incidents are rare on planes just as they’re relatively rare in society (though when they happen they make news).
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.
Hyatt Gold Passport announced a promotion for their co-brand credit card holders. Register and receive a 10% rebate on points redeemed through October 31.
In 2015 Hyatt and Chase offered co-brand credit card holders a 20% rebate during a five month period at the beginning of the year. That was the first time they made such an offer. While a 10% rebate is nice, it’s hard not to compare it to last year’s 20%.
The flight attendants handled some difficult passengers with grace and a friendly, helpful manner. Everyone in the cabin who was being difficult was satisfied and reassured they’d be well cared for.
We got a hot meal with choice of entree, a dessert from French bakery Ladurée, multiple passes for drinks and lie flat seats. And the flight came with access to Qatar’s Al Safwa first class lounge.
Modern airlines are really transportation system, and part financial trading firm. And sometimes they’re more of the latter than the former.
As Delta lost billions of dollars last year on commodities futures (‘fuel hedges’) I wrote that they’re as much a complex derivatives trading firm as an airline.
United and Continental merged in 2010, with Continental management eventually taking over, but six years later that merger is still not complete.
Legacy United and Continental flight attendants still do not operate under a single contract, and as a result United flight attendants work United planes and Continental flight attendants work Continental planes — and new aircraft get split between them.
A couple of weeks ago – finally – United and its flight attendants came to terms on a joint contract. Here’s a union summary of the deal (.pdf) showing that wages go up substantially.
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 »
