Monthly Archives for December 2021.
Housing the homeless in hotels is hardly new. At New York JFK airport hotels it’s even largely expected. During the pandemic the practice accelerated. There were plenty of empty rooms. States like California, New York, and others turned to hotels to house the homeless.
Hilton Honors should treat elites as well as my college dorm! They should provide a choice between free breakfast or the smaller dollar credit. Hilton would still manage their costs while providing guest flexibility. That would turn a controversial move into a win that customers would love.
It’s easy to rage at an airline on social media. But unless your tweet goes super viral it’s not likely to get you much. Better to take ownership of the situation yourself. Here’s 9 ways to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
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.
The Ethiopian Airlines lounge at the carrier’s home airport in Addis Ababa has some basic rules. You cannot bring outside food in the lounge (for cleanliness) and you cannot take food out of the lounge (for cost). Don’t put your feet up on the furniture and – sadly this needs to be said – don’t lie down on the floor.
What’s unique is that they’ll penalize your frequent flyer account for breaking these rules.. It’s 2000 miles for a first offense, 5000 miles for a second offense, and dropping your elite status down to Silver for 6 months as a third offense.
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 a Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Dublin was removed after making a 20 minute anti-vax rant moving up and down the aisle of the aircraft on December 15th that began when a crewmember asked the man to put on a mask, according to a passenger on the flight.
JetBlue used to seem a bit half-hearted about its loyalty program. It was always a bit of a me-too effort, from revenue-based accrual and redemption to a single-tier elite program that doesn’t even offer free extra legroom seats to its top customers.
Now that they’re (1) expanding internationally and (2) in an alliance with American Airlines, using American slots in New York to grow and taking traffic onto their flights from American’s long haul operation, they’re in a whole new ballgame. They’re even relevant to corporate business. And how you treat premium customers matters – more than just inflight in Mint (their business class cabin, which is quite good). So they’re beginning to get serious about an elite program.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly tested positive for Covid-19 “after returning home” from testifying in front of the Senate Commerce Committee with the CEOs of United Airlines and American Airlines, and an Executive Vice President of Delta. Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson was also there, and she reports speaking directly with Kelly after the hearing.
Lufthansa offers a promotion called Mileage Bargains but I’ve never seen anything from them this good – legitimate 75% off redemptions flying business class (and other classes of service) on their long haul leisure carrier Eurowings Discover.
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 »
