Monthly Archives for January 2023.
Airport data shows that local traffic at the airport still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, yet connecting traffic has grown tremendously. American Airlines in particular has more than doubled its number of connecting passengers compared to before the pandemic.
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.
Whenever a hotel chain adds a brand, like Marriott’s bringing on City Express as their 31st brand or Hilton launching Spark – a cheaper version of Hampton Inn, with splashes of light purple! – consumers react with confusion. How can we possibly need more hotel brands? Don’t the big chains already have more than enough?
Customers simply do not know which hotel brands are part of which chains, or what each brand stands for. This confusion must mean there are too many brands, yet brands continue to expand which must mean chains must believe doing this is profitable. After all, more brands means being able to open more hotels and attract more developers and owners.
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.
Air India is on the verge of announcing an order for 500 aircraft, which would give them an order book similar in size to United Airlines.
They are expected to order 400 narrowbody planes, and 100 widebodies. According to one of the biggest players in airline leases, the order will likely be Airbus A320neos, A321neos and 737 MAXs, plus 787s, 777Xs, and Airbus A350s.
Many airlines don’t make award space available until closer to travel. They only want to let you spend the lowest number of points for seats they’re confident they will not sell. And they may not be sure what that looks like until closer to travel. That’s especially been true during the pandemic when it hasn’t been clear when countries would re-open for travel, or when travel demand would return.
Japan Airlines has returned to making business class award seats available at the start of the booking calendar, with great availability right now from all U.S. gateways to Tokyo for two or more passengers.
Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s best carriers, some would even say the best overall. Their product isn’t just premium at the front end of the aircraft, they pay attention to little details in economy like a bit more legroom; cup holders and foot rests on long haul seats; quality food and one of the best entertainment systems. Service is known to be almost universally good.
What some people don’t realize is that they do not fly just to Singapore. They fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo. They fly from New York to Frankfurt and they fly from Houston to Manchester, England.
Star Alliance member ANA, a United Airlines partner, has offered one of the world’s best first class products for a long time – and it has kept getting better. Often underrated compared to Emirates, Air France and others, their new “The Suite” seat is outstanding; service is among the best in the world albeit tending towards Japanese formality; and the catering truly hard to beat, if not as varied as it once was.
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.
Washington National airport built an entire new concourse to replace one miserable gate. Gate 35X was a bus gate that served 14 remote stands for 50 seat regional jets. The new regional concourse supports 14 large regional jets. There’s a gorgeous Admirals Club in that concourse, too.
The new concourse was part of the 10-figure “Project Journey” which moved security screening so that all of the concourses and “National Hall” would be airside. It turns out we didn’t need to wait two decades to eliminate ‘the worst gate in the country’.
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 »
