Monthly Archives for July 2023.
ThanksAgain is a rewards program where you register your credit card, and it scans your transactions for eligible activity and offers you points – that can be converted into frequent flyer miles or gift cards.
It began years ago as a general retail rewards program. Many dry cleaners were included. Then nearly a decade ago they pivoted to being largely rewards for airport spend.
To borrow from Marx in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, hotel fees were introduced as tragedy but have proceeded to farce. Yet somehow I’ve come across one that actually still astonishes me.
A limited-service hotel’s self-serve continental breakfast had a tip jar beside the cereal tower, and even pre-seeded the jar with cash to imply that other guests are offering tips.
Buying seats that you do not intend to fly, to keep other people from buying them, creates actual harm to the airline (it prevents them from earning revenue). They won’t sit idly by. Consequences could be even greater.
Brazilians are flying to the U.S. to buy computers and then flying home. The cost savings on their purchases more than funds the trip. And some buy more than one, sell the second at home, making the whole thing ‘free’.
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.
It can be jarring to be told to weighh your carry on as you’re about to board, not just put it in the sizer to make sure its measurements are compliant. But it’s all part of updating data for safety.
Last month I broke the news that Southwest Airlines would start selling overnight connection flights for the first time. The plan was initially to launch this on June 26, but it was delayed. The airline has a new date this time: Wednesday, July 19th.
A passenger at New York JFK airport shared that they were charged $7.66 for a single bottle of water on Thursday at the ‘Downtown Market’ store near the airport’s gate two inside terminal 1, which houses mainly the international airline partners of Delta-led SkyTeam and United-led Star Alliance. The payment tablet at the store asks the customer to tip on top of this.
At the end of last year, I shared a guest post by a reader who racked up 250 nights with chain hotel programs in 2022. It was helpful to see his perspective on the best hotel program for someone who often stays in small towns without full-service hotels, so the footprint of a hotel chain matters – not just its benefits.
Halfway through 2023 this anonymous contributor shared an update. His travel has slowed down this year and he doesn’t expect to log more than 150 nights on the road. He gave up on Hyatt, which doesn’t have enough self-managed full-service hotels where he travels, and maybe he regrets it?
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 »
