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’ve reviewed this property several times, and a review (there’s a great pool!) isn’t the point of this post. Instead it’s elite benefits on a simple trip that I didn’t have to go halfway around the world to take advantage of.
There’s an important lesson for airlines, too. Increasingly airlines treat you based on how much you’re spending on a given ticket. But when you’re spending a lot on a ticket, at least when it’s not transatlantic business class where you need a night’s sleep before going straight to work on the other end, you may not even care much about the treatment. Real loyalty is secured on cheaper stays or points redemptions when you’re creating moments with family.
I recently spent a few hours in a Qantas coach seat onboard on of their Airbus A380s. I came away amazed by the experience. The seat itself was comfortable and well padded. I can’t say enough about the importance of padding, something that many modern ‘slimline’ seats designed to squeeze half an inch of space per row and make it possible to add more seats to the plane compromise on.
I fly Southwest Airlines all the time. Southwest has a motto ‘we do short better’ and Southwest coach is great for up to 3 hours or so. I wouldn’t love to fly them to Hawaii, but I’ll gladly jump on their Washington National – Austin flight since they’re the only one that can legally fly it and it saves me a connection.
How the European group of airlines including Lufthansa and Swiss attracts high yield passengers. Surprisingly business class passengers choose Lufthansa because they offer a first class, and cheap coach tickets are important to retaining premium passengers too.
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.
Details on the conditions under which the auto-pilot won’t promptly disengage aren’t yet available. However crucial seconds may matter in an emergency and this item is listed among critical issues Boeing must address. The FAA is looking to re-certify in conjunction with other major regulators, so EU insistence effectively means that Boeing has to solve this problem before the plane can fly again in the U.S. as well.
One of the dares in the spin the bottle game, it seems, was to get naked and run down the hallway of the hotel knocking on other guest room doors.
Last year, apparently, British Airways had to change crew hotels in Singapore after a female flight attendant ran through the lobby in her underwear.
Southwest’s status match offer isn’t once in a lifetime. Under the terms they’ve described I should be able to status match using my American Airlines status once my current Southwest status expires, and do that each and every year.
As long as Southwest runs this offer, provided they honor its terms, elites with any US airline should be eligible for continued Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards A-List status — you just need to let your Southwest status lapse before applying again.
Even by my standards Mexican low cost carrier Volaris has extreme chutzpah. Back in February they entered into a 12-month agreement to receive subsidies and fly twice-weekly between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico.
They started selling the flight. However last week the airline told the cities that unless they coughed up an additional $32,000 per roundtrip the service was off.
I’ve written about how badly American’s operation is performing this summer so it’s only fair to note that while they’re still suffering, the fifth week of the summer schedule was slightly improved.
American Airlines didn’t meet their (very modest) operational goals, but they hit higher marks than in weeks three or four. In sharing this news with employees American recognized an Airport Customer Service instructor for “going the extra mile for our customers this peak travel season” during irregular operations.
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 »
