Monthly Archives for February 2018.
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.
Earlier in the week I wrote about the pretty outrageous domestic first class fares the EPA Administrator travels on. He’s loyal to Delta even when the federal government has awarded a city pair contract to another airline. And he pays full fare first even for the Delta Shuttle between New York and DC.
There’s been much hand wringing though over his flying Emirates business class Milan – New York in June. That’s wrong. Here’s why.
Last year Hyatt ran double points April through June and double points for the last month and a half of the year. Those were the only bonus promotions for hotel stays Hyatt ran. Period. And there’s been nothing yet this year.
Until now: they’ve just announced their new promotion and it’s likely better than double points — and kicks in with your first stay.
Marriott’s ‘Leadership’ prefers the Hyatt Regency LAX over the half dozen Marriott properties in the area.
Loyalty fraud is a costly issue for programs. A lot of it originates in China.
The challenge though is limiting the cost of fraud without undercutting the value proposition of the program to legitimate members. That’s what I highlighted earlier in the week with Alaska’s new policy of prohibiting booking awards within 72 hours of travel on Cathay Pacific, JAL, or Hainan Airlines.
When a hotel program promotes that you can use points for any ‘standard room’ available on property, you think that means the most common room at the hotel. It doesn’t. It means the worst or lowest category room at the hotel.
And some hotels use this to prevent members from using their points. Hyatt has had real problems with this at some of its premier properties.
There’s a lot of pushback to the Trump administration suggestion to sell off DC area airports.
I’d like to leave aside the particular proposal and make a few points about the concept, both selling the DC airports and federal assets generally. Even if you’re not a fan of the President or of ‘privatizing’ see if you can disagree with these.
I’m driven nuts by upgrade issues like American Airlines agents not handing out upgrades to passengers who aren’t waiting in the gate area or not bothering to process upgrades at the gate because they’re too busy (so first class seats go out empty while passengers on the upgrade list sit in back).
Most of the time though what looks like shenanigans turns out to have a perfectly logical explanation on closer inspection.
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.
ANA first class availability, booked far in advance, is outstanding right now. And it’s accessible using miles from a variety of programs — in the Star Alliance and through other airline partnerships as well. They offer one of the best and most consistent first class products in the world. It’s not as flashy as Emirates or Etihad, but the service and food are fantastic.
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 »
