The best deals at any given time will change, and I always assume that the very best one won’t last. There’s a tendency in travel towards mean reversion, with outlier offers disappearing and new ones popping up. That’s alright — as long as you’re taking advantage of the best deals while they’re around.
Here are what I think are the 10 best deals in travel. What do you think?
Frequent flyer programs are really two separate and distinct efforts under the same banner: recognition and reward. Reward is mileage earning and redemption. Recognition consists of the (elite) benefits offered.
In the U.S. airline programs are generous by world standards in offering unsold domestic premium cabin seats as upgrades. However they aren’t as generous with service-oriented benefits.
Ariline Weekly founding editor Seth Kaplan writes at The Points Guy that Southwest Airlines may be doing worse at New York LaGuardia than at Newark, and they pulled out of Newark. He says they shouldn’t pull out of LaGuardia, though, and shouldn’t have left Newark.
The challenge of course is that at this point, given slot controls at two of the three New York airport and shortage of gates, it’s incredibly difficult to re-enter the market if you leave. Do they need to change their business model to succeed?
The Department of Transportation offered final guidance on its enforcement priorities with respect to emotional support animals.
They haven’t issued regulations – they’ve just told airlines the conditions under which they aren’t going to do anything in the event of a complaint by a passenger, essentially giving airlines license to deny carriage to emotional support animals of certain kinds, to place limits on the number of animals an individual may bring on, and to require paperwork from passengers claiming to need a support animal.
Most provisions of Canada’s new Air Passenger Protection Regulations went into effect July 15. They lay out new rules that apply to flights to, from, and within Canada – including connecting flights.
One of the rules is that when an airline damages or loses luggage they must refund checked baggage fees they collected. After all, they didn’t provide the service they charged for – prompt transport of luggage from one place to the next, delivering it in the condition it was received (outside of normal wear and tear).
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.
This past weekend a Ural Airlines Airbus A321 landed in a field after a double bird strike drawing comparisons to the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ US Airways flight 1549 ten years earlier.
Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger became an American hero as the captain of that US Airways flight, and Tom Hanks played him wonderfully on the big screen. Now he’s being ‘honored’ in a different way.
This week a video went viral of a Delta passenger living his dream as the only on on board his Delta flight from Aspen to Salt Lake City. Even on that 292 mile regional jet hop it’s a cool experience.
Seeing it described in a variety of media as being ‘like a private jet experience’ though reminded me that four years ago Delta announced elite upgrade opportunities to private jets. What ever happened to Delta’s private jet upgrade program?
The Wright Brothers first took flight but JetBlue is using the ‘Alright Brothers’ to describe what’s wrong with fly on other airlines as part of their new campaign that seeks to describe what’s different about the airline.
Most airline advertising fails because it doesn’t tell you why you should fly the airline or because it can’t do so with a straight face.
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 »
