A two-bedroom beach condo in St. Maarten can be had for just 15,000 points a night — or under $100 if you buy the points on sale — which is the kind of value that makes even a pretty uninspiring currency suddenly worth paying attention to.
American Express is adding a new Centurion lounge in Boston, a Sidecar dining outpost in Charlotte, and a major expansion of its Centurion lounge at Dallas-Fort Worth. The catch is that Boston cardmembers will be waiting until 2029, years later than originally expected.
Marriott says guests can now earn points for skipping toilet flushes, raising the obvious question of whether this is about sustainability or simple cost cutting. Also in the roundup on April Fools’ Day: Amex kills the Platinum Saks credit, Qantas swaps in a first class cheeseburger, and San Diego’s Aspire lounge is getting much bigger.
Southwest’s latest privacy policy email told customers almost nothing, which is exactly why so many people assumed the worst. The real changes were broader and older than Monday’s notice suggested, and they are fueling fears that the airline is building the tools for heavier tracking, biometric monitoring, and more personalized pricing.
Delta Air Lines is now making guests check bags before entering the dining room at its Delta One lounge at New York JFK, after what staff described as a very serious recent incident. At the same time, passengers buying upgraded drinks are being asked to tip in SkyMiles, adding a tacky new twist to what Delta sells as a premium ground experience.
Air India will begin weighing flight attendants under a new health and fitness policy starting May 1, with overweight crew removed from duty and, in some cases, taken off payroll until they clear medical review. The airline says the BMI-based crackdown is about safety and fitness, but it also comes in the middle of a broader effort to remake Air India’s image with new uniforms, stricter standards, and a very public brand reset.
A new report values American Airlines’ AAdvantage program at roughly four times the airline’s own stock market value, a stark reminder that the real economics of major carriers no longer sit mainly in selling seats. The most profitable part of the business is increasingly the loyalty machine — using aspirational travel rewards to drive high-spending credit card customers, with flying often acting as the marketing platform for the cards.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers who spend $75,000 a year can now unlock World of Hyatt Explorist status by linking their Hyatt account in the Chase benefits portal.
Three women headed to Philadelphia on Frontier had their boarding passes voided in Miami after refusing to pay added bag fees, then went down the jetbridge anyway, refused orders to get off the plane, and ended the night in handcuffs. What began as yet another fight over Frontier’s aggressively monetized carry-on rules quickly escalated into trespass, removal from the aircraft, and resisting arrest — delaying the flight for everyone else.
American Airlines offered an erotic fiction author $2,499 to keep her elite status, and instead of taking the bait she responded the only way she could: in character, through the jetset world of her own books. Beneath the joke is a real point about airline loyalty in 2026 — American is charging real money to preserve status benefits that many travelers increasingly believe no longer deliver much of anything.
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 »
