Monthly Archives for April 2017.
Hilton as their own new brands — Tru by Hilton and Tapestry Collection by Hilton — and noting they talk about them as by Hilton which is a great reminder.
Hilton describes both as having “a hotel experience that is vibrant, affordable and young at heart with style and personality unique from our existing portfolio.”
Here’s a really crazy video that was uploaded yesterday of a woman on a Delta Connection flight who had issues, yet seemed to be having fun with her issues. Other passengers on the ground in San Antonio actually seemed to be enjoying the performance, at least until the whole flight was asked to deplane.
Language is not safe for work, but the woman offers an ongoing narrative where she’s even the one claiming the airline says she’s disruptive while she says the airline denies it. But ‘they ain’t seen crazy yet’ they’re going to see tri-polar, not just bipolar.
Inside Flyer interviews the man behind the card that US Bank is introducing to the premium market: the Altitude Reserve Card.
Before all the details were out Frequent Miler called it the “Sapphire Reserve killer” though while an attractive value proposition I don’t think that’s quite right.
Airline Weekly (subscription only) ran charts this week with data from Diio Mi showing the number of scheduled seats departing various airports for the largest U.S. airlines in the second quarter, and the year-over-year growth (or retrenchment) that represents.
Delta, United, and American have unsuccessfully lobbied for two years to get the government to limit flying by Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar — reducing consumer choice and raising prices. Delta’s CEO actually said his goal was a government rule against lower airfare prices.
And even as Emirates announces a 20% cut in US flights because of passenger drops, they continue to press their case claiming Emirates doesn’t really make decisions based on the performance of its flights. Really?
In 2009 he was flying 700,000 miles per year. Last year he hit 17 million flown, which would mean 7 million in 5 years or 1.4 million per year — twice his earlier pace. That would be 3835 miles per day which would require flying literally a third of the hours in each year.
He has a titanium frequent flyer card and a plane named after him.
Two months ago United Airlines started selling highly restrictive ‘basic economy fares’ on a test bases on routes between Minneapolis St. Paul and the airline’s hubs.
These fares don’t allow advance seat assignments, ticket changes, or a full sized carry on bag. Elites don’t get upgrades or economy plus seats on these fares, and customers don’t earn credit towards status either.
Robert Kuttner has been beating the drum seeking to re-regulate the airline industry for years. He takes whatever the latest news story is as a hook for his cause. In 2009 he argued that safety meant we needed to undo deregulation even though airlines are safer than they’ve ever been, and deregulation didn’t take the government out of overseeing airline safety at all.
Now he’s back completely misrepresenting the industry he wants to regulate, with solutions that he even admits would ban low prices and force airlines to travel with empty seats.
Emirates has announced they’re cutting 20% of flights to the U.S. affecting 5 destinations.
All of this to the benefit of Delta, United, and American which are collectively already the most profitable airlines in the world, calling for protectionism for a mature industry with record high levels of employment.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says the Visa Waiver Program needs to be revisited after all.
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 »
