Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for July 2019.

Marriott’s CEO Defends Resort Fees, Says They’re Good For You

by Gary Leff

art installation
Jul 14 2019

Washington DC is suing Marriott over its resort fees. “Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s on face deceptive.

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson, who thinks you have to enter a passport number to make a reservation at Marriott.com (so their unprecedented data breach was just the result of saving information for your booking convenience) and who thinks problems with the Bonvoy program were just “noise around the edges” gave an interview where he defended the undefendable resort fee. Naturally he did so disingenuously.

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There’s How Expert Travelers Pack and Then There’s Jennifer Garner

by Gary Leff

girl looking at shirt
Jul 13 2019

Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air was such a phenomenal movie for frequent travelers because as a top tier elite and mileage junkie himself he cared about getting so many of the details of life on the road right, and of course because he cast George Clooney in the lead role making airport security and hotel check-ins cool.

This is how we all see ourselves packing and cruising effortlessly through the airport…

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Delta Award Sale: Europe From 20,000 Miles Roundtrip, No Fuel Surcharges

by Gary Leff

delta airplanes on tarmac
Jul 13 2019

Delta is running a European award sale for redemption starting with August travel and running through fall, starting at 20,000 miles roundtrip (and roundtrip travel is required). There are any number of eligible routes pricing between 20,000 and 38,000 miles roundtrip.

And no matter what all of the other blogs are saying, in many cases this isn’t even a very good deal.

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Passenger Strips Down at American Airlines Gate: Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

by Gary Leff

man losing clothes in airport
Jul 13 2019

The plot of Falling Down appears to re-create itself in Spanish, where a man is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore to borrow from another Hollywood classic. Is he frustrated by American Airlines? Raging against machines taking over simple tasks once employing people? Or frustrated by his own circumstance?

A man storms away from the desk at his gate, throws down the boarding group sign, where an American Airlines employee puts it back up. Meanwhile the passenger has taken off his shirt and allows his pants to sag. He grabs the reaches for the back of the employee’s neck. The employee goes about his business while the man rants in the gate area.

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The CEOs of the 3 Biggest Airlines Wrote an Op-Ed and Every Paragraph is Misleading

by Gary Leff

man speaking on microphone
Jul 13 2019

The U.S. airline industry was born in subsidy from the post office and American Airlines received a federal loan to pay for its first big aircraft order. The U.S. airline industry has more government involvement than most countries — the U.S. model where airports are owned and run by government agencies, and air traffic control is managed by the government is unusual.

Big U.S. airlines like Delta, American, and United have all benefited from major government subsidies, like moving pension obligations off their books and onto the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in bankruptcy while retaining tax loss carry forwards so that they wouldn’t have to pay taxes once they started earning profits.

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Genius Flyer Tries to Find Shortcut to the Plane – By Getting on the Checked Baggage Belt

by Gary Leff

woman on conveyor belt
Jul 13 2019

A many of the world’s airports it’s a long walk from check-in to the gate. Some of that delay is due to immigration and customs formalities, but at newer airports that also usually means walking through a maze designed to move you past as much high-end retail as possible. That’s because expensive retail generates big revenue for the airport.

Sometimes you start to think: there has to be a better way.

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Etihad First Apartment Awards Wide Open (and Business Class for Up to 9)

by Gary Leff

airline bed
Jul 12 2019

One of my most frequent and best uses of American AAdvantage miles over the past 7 years has been booking first class awards on Etihad. I’ve used them to fly to the Maldives four times, to India, to the Gulf region and from the Mideast to Australia to name just a few.

And they offer an excellent hard product in first class – on their Airbus A380 the ‘First Apartment’ with an on board shower.

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