Monthly Archives for August 2018.
At the outset of an employee forum last week American Airlines President Robert Isom declared, “we’re planning the airline in a world where oil be at $75 a barrel forever.”
Here’s what he says that new reality means for the ariline.
Say that you wanted to stay at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris over Christmas. The hotel has rooms for sale, but there are no award rooms available for December 22-26.
You can set an alert for a Park Queen or for the Twin which are bookable with points. Or perhaps you already have a room booked at the hotel and what you are looking to do is use points or a confirmed suite upgrade for a suite — but the standard suite isn’t available. Set an alert for the Park Suite King.
Last week a Chicago-based flight attendant asked American’s President Robert Isom about “the rumor that we’re going to lose all of our Asia flying” from O’Hare. Isom didn’t say no, Chicago won’t lose Asia service. Instead he explained how he sees American’s hubs.
American’s Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja added “the core of Chicago is an extremely profitable hub” because of connecting traffic in the Midwest and flying to partner hubs. “The only hubs that are more profitable than that are indeed Dallas and Charlotte.” However “the drags on Chicago are indeed Chicago to Asia flying.”
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.
According to its President Robert Isom at an employee forum last week “it is still a big issue.” Isom claims to have “made progress.. we’re pleased that there’s a recognition that when it comes to fifth freedom flights.. that that’s a problem.”
Isom concludes, “It’s still a focus area.. we’re pleased with the work we’ve been able to do with the Trump administration and we’re pleased with the results so far.”
United, Delta, and American are all offering business class roundtrips between Las Vegas and Beijing from $1901. These fares are widely available through the end of November. There are other cities where you can hop on cheap fares though they’re a few hundred dollars more.
We frequently see sales out of Toronto or Vancouver, or on Chinese airlines that have just recently started routes to the U.S. However seeing this kind of fare on the big 3 US carriers is rare indeed.
Bibles have been in hotel rooms for over 100 years, dating back at least to 1908 at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. The Gideons, which was formed by two men sharing a hotel room in 1898, give them away for free.
The average life of a hotel room bible is six years. Guests take them, even though they say ‘thou shalt not steal’ inside.
You can fly Delta premium economy on their new Airbus A350 starting at under $750 roundtrip to Asia.
More often than not coach is more expensive than this and premium economy is similar to flying an upgraded domestic first class — much more room and personal space than flying in back.
Since announcing the new Marriott program in April there’s been inconsistent information about breakfast, about lounge access, and about redemptions for Starwood properties that previously charged double points compared to the standard award chart.
They haven’t been ready for prime time for instance they haven’t shared what would happen with travel packages redeemed prior to the start of the new program but where award certificates hadn’t yet been used for a reservation. And they hadn’t even published the terms and conditions for the new program. They don’t plan to share those things until the program launch on August 18.
Existing travel packages have been an outstanding questions. Members who redeem for a travel package, transfer points to miles, and hold onto the hotel stay certificate to use later have wondered ‘since Marriott’s award charts are changing, and my certificates are for a specific redemption category, what’s going to happen? what hotels will I be able to use them for?’
Marriott is sharing that travel packages are going to be adjusted so that they will be used on ‘similarly valued’ hotel categories.
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 »
