Monthly Archives for May 2024.
A week ago I wrote about a Hertz President Circle member charged $277 for returning a rented Tesla without filling it with gas. That’s the second-most Hertz thing ever, after getting arrested because the rental company reported the car you rented stolen.
Being charged exorbitant rates for not filling up the gas on an electric vehicle seems to be a systemic problem for this very broken rental car agency.
The quirk is that when you book a business class award, and add a connection in economy, sometimes the price of the award drops.
Even better you don’t need to do this as a throwaway ticket without checking bags. Alaska Airlines offers one-way awards with a free stopover. So book your business class ticket to Europe and add a one-way coach flight to another destination for later. You should do this anyway any time you’re booking an award since it’s a free extra trip. Except here it’s negative-priced.
I actually do not think this pricing is a mistake. LifeMiles is aggressive in managing its pricing. There are some awards you’ll find with other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs that LifeMiles won’t show availability for. That’s intentional. When an award is too expensive for their pricing, LifeMiles doesn’t let you book it. But they also drop their pricing below award chart pricing with some regularity and this too has been intentional.
An American Airlines passenger “waited in the bathroom so he could get off first.” When the flight arrived at Dallas – Fort Worth, the man got up and came forward, entering the lavatory as though he ‘had to go’. And he waited there, rather than returning to his seat, so that he’d be the first passenger off of the aircraft.
CEO Barry Biffle has been willing to try a lot of things, and it’s interesting to watch. He’s also a great marketer. He was the marketing mind at Spirit Airlines back when their ads went viral for having the sense of humor of a 13-year old boy.
Now the airline says it is eliminating change fees on most fares, and that is… sort of true?
American Airlines has announced service to New Castle airport in Wilmington, Delaware. That will give them operations in all 50 states. This new service will not be on an airplane. Instead it will be with a Landline bus to Philadelphia, where passengers can connect to the airline’s hub.
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 was at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman when I first coined the term “resort factory.” There were about several rows of beach chairs, and if you didn’t place a book on a chair by 8 a.m. you’d find yourself four rows back from the beach.
Staff turned my table at breakfast, seating someone else, while I was up at the buffet. And housekeeping entered the room without knocking while the Do Not Disturb sign was on my door. That was probably my… best Ritz-Carlton stay.
American Airlines has made two changes in the past year that make it harder to get where you’re going.
On May 6, air traffic control cleared American Airlines flight 2473 to take off for Dallas. Then – immediately after – the same air traffic controller cleared Frontier 1734 from Denver to cross the same runway to head towards its gate.
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 »
