Monthly Archives for August 2022.
One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is ‘how can I donate miles to charity?’ And the problem is that you really can’t unless you want to give to one of a handful of pre-selected groups your frequent flyer program endorses, or you want to directly book an award for someone out of your account. But this is not always true and you can make a difference.
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 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 have gone through unprecedented challenges as a result of the global pandemic. Carriers have taken on enormous levels of debt and have only limited ability to invest in their product again. Delta CEO has even said he expects future bailouts if they’re needed. What if the solution to long-term airline solvency were right in front of us? What if it took just a tweak to one law to make happen? And we might never be stuck doling out subsidies again.
What’s your foreign currency routine? How do you buy it, and do you convert it back to your home currency when you leave a country?
An American Airlines passenger needed to get travel for work, and work involved using an empty bucket. He had to be at work before stores opened the next morning. And that meant he’d have to bring the bucket with him on his flight. So he brought it along as checked luggage. The bucket made it!
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 shocked to see that Alaska Airlines appears to have wide open award availability for Singapore Airlines business class awards between the U.S. and Asia. In fact it seems they have at least as good availability as is offered to Singapore’s own members.
Alaska Airlines does a nice job taking care of customers one at a time – not always and in every case, of course, but on the whole my dealings with them have been just a touch more ‘human’ than average for the U.S. airline industry. So it didn’t surprise me to see this tweet about Alaska successfully recovering a laptop left on one of their planes.
This shouldn’t be a standout, but how often do you expect to actually receive valuables returned to you if you’ve left them on a plane?
Over the past several days there’s been an argument brewing on twitter over the concept of “non-stop” versus “direct” flights, and how the difference confuses consumers.
With a non-stop flight you take off from one city and land at your destination. A direct flight between those cities entails landing somewhere else first. It may really just mean a connection to another plane, but that new plane carriers the same flight number as the first one.
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 »
