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.
Back in March I wrote about the JW Marriott Los Cabos charging award guests an extra $30 per night fee to stay, calling it “the most Marriott Bonvoy thing ever.”
This flat fee was described as a ‘service charge’. Paid rate guests pay a service charge of 10% of their room rate, and with paid rates under $300 service charges are lower for guests paying cash than those paying with points. Marriott is refunding everyone who was charged this fee for a points stay at this property and two others.
In covering Alaska Airlines introducing award redemptions on oneworld partner Qatar Airways, I learned a few interesting things about the program’s plan for bringing on additional redemption.
When this card came out it was the greatest frequent flyer thing since miles themselves. Chase Sapphire Preferred was (1) fast-earning [double points on travel and dining] and (2) had valuable points that transferred to great partners.
And the card was even considered a bit sexy. What happened?
It’s only been two weeks since American Airlines introduced ‘fresh bites’ boxes to flights at least 900 miles long and already they’re planning to bring back hot meals to first class this fall.
Alaska separately introduced their partnership with oneworld member Qatar Airways, and at the start of June said that award redemption on Qatar would become available in August. They’re actually a few days early, and Qatar Airways awards are currently bookable on the Alaska Airlines website. However the prices are.. sketchy to say the least.
Escape lounges in the U.S. are being rebranded as “Escape Lounges – The Centurion® Studio Partner”. Escape has a new partnership, though, outside of the American Express relationship. They’ll be delivering phone booths in airports you can pay to access for privacy and to charge devices in conjunction with Jabbrrbox which has had these in airports since 2018.
American Airlines will partner with and invest in South American ultra low cost carrier Jetsmart, which is owned by the same parent company as Frontier Airlines and Europe’s Wizz Air. Jetsmart operates coach-only densely configured Airbus A320 narrowbody planes from Chile and Argentina, serving 33 destinations.
Back in the fall of 2003 United had a guy named Ted going around Denver picking up lunch tabs for entire restaurants. You see, Ted was their new low cost carrier ‘within the airline’ that United was launching. Ted was your friend. He was fun. That’s not how Ted turned out, in fact Ted – which shared the last 3 letters of United – was often described as being “the end of United.” And United retired Ted on January 6, 2009. Around the time that United was paying someone to pick up lunch, US Airways decided it needed to respond and so a guy named “Seth” picked up a few lunch tabs in Crystal City near the carrier’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters. Although by that time US Airways’ low cost carrier within a carrier MetroJet 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.
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 »
