Monthly Archives for February 2019.
Alaska Airlines has a new 15 second commercial, suggesting you don’t get much from other airlines. Funny thing is if I got this as a meal from American, United, or Delta I’d be pretty happy!
A new series of commercials portrays disappointing situations in life and says they’re better — even as the airline is becoming more and more like its competitors.
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.
I’m not sure why Marriott didn’t announce a promotion to coincide with the launch of their new program name, why they are spending money on printing and postage to announce the promotion, or why they’ve failed to get up the promotion website that they’re mailing members about — other than to say of course that’s what happened.
VietJet had been an exclusive Airbus customer until President Obama visited Vietnam in 2016 and so far operate 64 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and no Boeing jets. They have five times as many planes on order as in operation.
Even without the Export-Import Bank giving Boeing’s business a boost, the US government is still their chief benefactor. And in the case of VietJet you might even say the President grabbed these orders by the…
The ETA “Executive Travel App” will give you 15,000 United or American miles for booking your next trip to mark the launch of their Slack integration.
Their target audience is frequent business travelers who book travel for themselves — but anyone who downloads the app and books a trip is eligible for the bonuses.
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.
A passenger on board Biman Bangladesh flight BG147 from Dhaka to Chittagong to Dubai attempted to hijack the plane, informing crew that he had a gun and some reports also suggest a bomb.
According to Bangladeshi officials the alleged hijacker asked to speak to his wife and to the country’s prime minister who was visiting Chittagong.
Marriott let me know that the hack of their systems released my unencrypted passport number and unencrypted credit card number. Even this information isn’t helpful because they don’t let me know which number or whether or not it’s expired.
The data breach compromised 383 million records including 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers and 8.6 million payment cards. Marriott claims most credit cards were expired which means they have that information, but even though they’re telling me my credit card number was compromised they aren’t telling me the expiration date of the card.
United proudly is the only major airline that has kept the ban on carry on bags for basic economy customers. In fact they’re more punitive than that, even. A basic economy customer who isn’t checking a bag isn’t allowed to check-in online or via app. They have to show up at the airport early in order to stand in line to check in, so an agent can personally verify they don’t have a carry on.
Airlines have rolled out basic economy fares between the US and Europe but the carry on bag restriction didn’t take hold for transatlantic travel. Now it seems like it might not be able to even if airlines tried.
There’s a great deal of discussion of a rumor that Etihad could sever ties with American Airlines and partner with United or even join Star Alliance instead.
I first covered these discussions over the summer but now it’s getting much broader attention.
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 »
