Monthly Archives for January 2023.
Two years ago I wrote about the X1 Card. It was coming, and would potentially be a game-changer – a no annual fee card that earned up to 4x on all spend. It rolled out slowly, for a long time only available by referral. But it’s finally available and it is potentially very lucrative.
I’ve written about the risk you run booking an award stay with Hyatt or Marriott, that if you cancel after the cancellation deadline (say, for instance, your flight is cancelled) you don’t lose your points – you lose a cash forfeiture amount instead.
And your cash penalty can be really high. Most people think you lose your points if you make a points reservation and fail to cancel by the deadline. But that’s not how it works.
Hotels are getting rid of single use plastics, by offering bulk wall-mounted toiletries. And this is all about the environment, not cost savings. So why do they still have plastic water bottles and plastic-wrapped plastic cups? Oh, wait…
The new Delta Sky Club at New York LaGuardia is now only open until 7:30 p.m. But did you know that 7 Delta flights from New York now only allow lounge access for 35 minutes – or less?
To limit lounge crowding Delta won’t allow passengers into a lounge until 3 hours prior to departure of the first flight on their itinerary. In addition, several additional limits on club access go into effect next month as well.
There’s been zero discussion of updating the NOTAM system to focus on giving pilots (and airline ops centers) the right information, in the right form, at the right time – just how to keep the existing system from dumping again.
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.
This is going to seem like a minor thing to some readers, but I’m really excited about it. Two of my favorite brands in points-earning and redemption are now better-integrated.
Telling employees you appreciate them is great. Doing so in advance of their protests is great as well. But is it wrong to say that serving chili to people about to work inside a pressurized aircraft might not be the best idea?
CommuteAir, which operates Embraer ERJ-145s for United Airlines, left the entire U.S. federal No Fly List on a server that was easily hacked.
The best way to search Air France and KLM award space is on the AirFrance.us website. You hunt and peck a day at a time for availability. But they have a hidden award calendar and all you need to do to see it is leave your travel dates blank.
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 »
