News and notes from around the interweb:
- UberX pushed out of Greece. Because more cronyism is just what the Greek economy needs.
- ZorkFest Travel and Casino Loyalty Conference combines the travel and miles and points discussions that go on at other conferences with also teaching you how to leverage the casino programs that in many ways still offer more value to folks paying attention. No benefit to me, but the folks putting on the conference offered coupon code ZorkVFTW for $10 off.
- Delta.com not showing the lowest fares. Cranky Flier seems surprised that Delta shows no inclination to fix this. Bless his heart!
- Delta’s online chat provider was hacked and we’re only learning six months later
- Venetian and Palazzo have raised their resort fee to $45 the highest in Las Vegas. (HT: 777 global mile hound)
- As Hainan Airlines’ parent tries to raise cash they plan to sell some of their Hilton stake.
- On the latest American Airlines employee podcast ‘Tell Me Why’ the airline’s Vice President Communications interviews British Airways CEO Alex Cruz talking about their joint venture, that they “treat the product as the same product” which if it were actually true wouldn’t bode well for American’s premium customers. British Airways will eventually offer internet, of course, but there’s little relief in site for garbage seats.
I’m glad I got my fill of Vegas in the 90s, early 2000s, since it is just a huge money grab now. Before it was gambling and shows now it is, how many ways can we scam you out of your money (resort fees, parking, etc.).
I always enjoyed the people watching out there and didn’t mind gambling and the sports books but it was offset by the porn peddlers, taxi scammers, drug dealers, people getting wasted, etc.
I’ll use my money on trips elsewhere.
And companies won’t do anything about your security until they face huge fines for not taking, even the most basic of security precautions. There still are companies out there that won’t allow special characters in passwords, don’t use 2 factors, etc.
Those “resort fees” are an absolute scam. Avoid properties with these “we lie about our prices” tactics. It should be illegal. Fortunately I can get along just fine without Las Vegas.
Since 2008, the Vegas Strip has been stuck in the doldrums. The only real accomplishments since then have been the completion of Encore and City Center (both which were already half-built before the financial crisis) and Cosmopolitan (renovated condos).
For 10 years now, they’ve just been trying to make more money with less investment. Implode the outdated places and get some new blood in there. How is the Excalibur still occupying prime real estate?
What an insult to the Cranky Flyer! As someone who spends a lot of time in the South, you should no better than to use that except in the most egregious situations!
I think Joe Branatellli at JoeSentMe.com nailed BA pretty good last week. And clearly he was pissed that BA lied in the past about the pace of the “premium fixes.” It’s subscriber-only, but this alone is worth this annual price of admission: http://joe.biztravelife.com/18/032218.html
TIming is good, as the resort fee went up just as my IHG certs became no longer valid at Palazzo.
Elara By Hilton in Vegas who offers nothing to Diamond elites in the way of upgrades is the one of the few properties that I can think of not charging resort fees other than the local airport hotels etcin LV
The Cancer is spreading to New York City with the so called new Destination fees (fake resort fees)and likely we will see it spread if they continue to get away with it
Its going to cost hotels tens of thousands of dollars of my personal
business except for Hyatt who waives those fees for Globalists.Its a principal thing for me
Whats interesting to note is the explosion for AirBNB in Las Vegas.The increase since the resort fees and parking charges may be helping contribute to their bottom line
I know some my Australian friends are doing AirB&B in NYC to avoid the destination fees in NYC and have a more real localized experience
We need a great Government and lawyers to step in and fix this before we end up getting back to to getting dinged with energy fees,breathing fees ,daily water usage and housekeeping fees
Where does it stop?.I think the hotels are jealous of airlines bleeding customers of their $$$ and said me too
A friend of mine who is management and left Marriott more recently says the worst is yet to come from the merger for many guests.
But, is the resort fee “thing” really a Vegas crisis? In many cases, you can get a true (or close to it) 5* room in Vegas for a fraction of what it costs in NYC, or Paris, or London. So, I’m not sure I get how spending $129 + $45 for a room is worse than just having the rate at $350. And in most cases, the comparable resort would be around $350 in the other cities. Vegas has 42 million visitors a year. Visitation numbers for 2017 are down, but average daily room rates are up. While I don’t like resort fees for transparency… I also think some of the arguments are overblown. Now, resort fees on COMP rooms, that REALLY SUCKS. Since your “free” is no longer free. But, it’s all relative.
USA Today had a piece last weekend about Vegas resort fees. At many hotels the resort fee is higher than the paid nightly rate. It really falls into the false advertising category. There are the parking fees too. Last year, I stayed at the Mirage and the Paris on comp nights. The fees on each night were equal to the room rate that I paid only 6 years earlier. It really amounts to a way of increasing revenue on rooms just like fuel surcharges. Next recession will be a bad one and these casinos will be avoided because they burned people with excessive fees.
JohnB says:
“I stayed at the Mirage and the Paris on comp nights. The fees on each night were equal to the room rate that I paid only 6 years earlier.”
If you are paying RESORT FEES on CZR comp nights (aka Paris Las Vegas), you are doing something very very very very wrong. CZR waives resort fees for players, with the super easy to obtain Diamond Status. Figuring if you play enough to get comp rooms, you are also playing “the game.” 😉
>We need a great Government and lawyers to step in and fix this
Fix what? Just add the room rate and resort fee to get the real room rate.
We don’t need an army of $500-an-hour lawyers to save us from adding two numbers. For all I care, the resort fee can be $1,000/night if that’s what they think it’s worth. I’ll just stay elsewhere.
Friday and Saturday can easily be 250 to 400 per night plus resort fees and taxes