Monthly Archives for July 2020.
I haven’t spent a single night with Marriott so far this year, but I now have 55 elite nights in my account. Others have even more elite nights than I do without staying once. What a strange year this is (and this is perhaps the least of the reasons why).
These bonus elite nights count towards lifetime status. And by earning over 50 nights I should receive a Choice benefit that would even give me 5 more free elite nights too.
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.
Through July 12, Aeroplan will sell miles with a bonus of ‘up to’ 75%. They’ll sell you 1 million miles, double the usual limit.
There’s an extra kicker for those seeking elite status with Air Canada: the amount you spend buying miles with this promotion counts towards the airline’s qualifying dollars requirement.
At some point a mileage program has to give members a break, when they’re absolutely certain they’ve got seats that will go unsold, don’t they? And what does it say that they choose not to do so?
The question I have is what covenants were agreed to – aside from usual cancellation penalties or costs to defer deliveries – when American entered into a settlement at the beginning of the year with Boeing over the MAX?
At the time the value of the settlement was estimated at around $600 million although the form and timing of payments weren’t clear. If the settlement included conditions including acceptance of future deliveries, that could explain the airline’s willingness to do so, and could mean rejecting deliveries now would be even more costly than usual.
Companies are frequently faced with a dilemma where they have to choose between acting ethically and acting legally. But it’s shocking to find a situation where a company is faced with a binary choice, and either option they choose is illegal.
That’s apparently the situation American Airlines found itself in when pilot Major General Thomas Harwood III ended his tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force Reserve and sought to return to active status with the airline.
U.S. airlines tell the U.S. government they cannot do temperature checks themselves (Frontier notwithstanding), but at the same time U.S. airlines are already doing temperature screening on their flights to Canada.
An internal American Airlines memo details how customers will be handled if they show a 100.4 degree temperature or above.
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.
Airlines say if the government turns someone away for a fever, they’ll refund the customer’s ticket. Making someone with a fever show up at the airport potentially infecting others in order to qualify for a refund seems like a really dumb idea.
Some scientists say smell tests could be a better approach..
It’s the regime uncertainty as much as restrictions themselves that are damaging to travel at the moment. It’s tough to buy a ticket when travel restrictions may change after you make your purchase. And it’s tough to fly when you may be forced to quarantine for two weeks at your additional expense after potential exposure to someone with the virus.
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 »
