Monthly Archives for March 2020.
Hilton has offered status matches and fast tracks to elite for years. They’ve just extended their latest offer. Hilton will give you 90 days of Gold status which largely means free breakfast or lounge access and avoiding the bad rooms at the hotel.
A part of Birmingham airport in the U.K. is being converted to a makeshift morgue to initially hold 1500 bodies but with plans to covert to 12,000 as the need arises. Existing storage capacity is expected to be overwhelmed, and staff transferred to the airport facility to handle the volume.
Between March 11 – 22 Hotels.com “spent nearly $3 million on TV ads, with the majority on reality TV and movies.” You don’t have to be Captain Obvious to realize that’s a lower-return investment than a drive through strip club or bottled watered for pets.
China has seen our future, both in terms of economic collapse and how social relations change after what people are experiencing. Food delivery in the U.S. took a queue from China offering ‘leave food at the door’ as an option to ensure social distancing between driver and consumer.
Now that businesses in China are re-opening, we have a glimpse into how they’re protecting their employees, and how they’re changing the products that they offer to appeal to consumers.
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.
What United says is the reality of the industry. Fewer customers, fewer flights, will be serviced by fewer people. Allocating nearly $60 billion to the U.S. airline industry hasn’t changed that. It’s just delayed it to the fall.
In coach you can have a tray for the drink you brought on board yourself, a tray for the sandwich, and a tray for your laptop or tablet. You can stay as far away from other passengers and cabin crew as you wish, more or less. In first class you’re packed in next to people.
Why on earth are people accepting upgrades now?
Marriott has laid off several members of their Ambassador customer service team, and will no longer provided dedicated agents to their best customers until “returning to business as usual.” Instead, Marriott tells me, the remaining group of their best customer service agents will be “dedicated to Ambassador Elites.”
With American Airlines planes parked across many of their destinations, the airline is downsizing. Even operating a limited schedule nearly 80% of seats have been empty.
In addition to smaller groundings, American’s aircraft are currently on the ground in four primary clusters. Here are where their fleets are sitting, and what it looks like on the ground.
On Thursday the ‘association’ of two unions representing mechanics and fleet service workers announced that the contract was ratified. And the deal was overwhelmingly ratified, because their members aren’t morons. Going back tot he bargaining table now would mean a deal close to what they received was off the table. Signing bonuses? Now? Are you crazy?
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 »
