Monthly Archives for October 2016.
Delta opened their new SkyClub in Seattle minutes ago. I couldn’t make it to the preview event yesterday (believe me, I was shocked to be invited to a Delta event!) but I asked for photos and the lounge’s food menu. And I’m really impressed.
The club is near gate A1 at the intersection of the A and B concourses. This is one of Delta’s largest clubs at 21,000 square feet and with seating for over 400. And it’s stunning.
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.
The basics of loyalty programs are recognize and reward. Earn and burn are the reward part, but the recognition you get — the ‘VIP status’ — for focusing on the goal of staying with a single chain 25 times or 50 nights, or flying an airline 50,000 or 100,000 miles a year gets you treatment orders of magnitude better than the average person walking through the doors or onto the plane.
But there are limits that the marketing sometimes makes it easy to forget. And sometimes employees take elite status too far, also.
Ritz-Carlton clubs aren’t like the club lounges you may be used with at major chain hotels. They’ll frequently have up to 5 food presentations daily, and adult beverages throughout the day along with great service to take care of any needs you have during your stay.
You’ll find delicious, substantive food from breakfast to light snacks, afternoon tee, evening Hors d’Oeuvres and desserts. But elite status doesn’t get you in.
Last year I wrote about a homeless man who used credit card signup bonuses and reselling to live in hotel rooms. He was brand-loyal to Marriott, and ultimately caught buying and reselling Amtrak tickets.
Of course he might have just stayed at the Radisson JFK which New York had been using to house the homeless.
As someone who flies American Airlines regularly, I place a high value on lounge access. It’s the people who keep me going especially during irregular operations, going above and beyond to get me to my destination.
American’s premium services agents, who (among other things) staff the Admirals Clubs, used to work from a command line in the Sabre reservations system but are being transitioned to a graphical overlay that restricts what they’re able to do.
A couple of weeks ago I outlined what sites and tools you can use to find frequent flyer award seats.
You almost always want to do the research to find award space yourself and then set up the award (online, if your mileage program offers all partners on its website, or over the phone).
One key tool I mentioned was Expert Flyer which I said had the most limited coverage of airlines but is indispensable for American flyers (because it has upgrade space) and because you can set it up to keep searching for space and email you when it opens up.
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.
Last week there was a rumor that Chase would be removing 5 points per dollar earning on its Ink small business cards, but grandfathering in existing cardholders.
We know a little bit more now: Later this year Chase will be introducing a new Chase Ink Business Preferred card.
There’s a fare war going on right now for winter travel between New York and Paris. Of course coach travel to Paris has to be cheap otherwise you’ll just buy cheap business class.
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 »
