US airline trade group Airlines 4 American confirms that it has “approved a new international standard that will allow for ‘unspecified’ and ‘undisclosed’ in addition to ‘male’ or ‘female.’”
Effective June 1, 2019 this accommodates passengers who have an ‘X’ on their IDs for gender. This is currently an option for state IDs from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
French Polynesia is one of the toughest awards to book, because service is limited. There aren’t a lot of options for getting there, even if you’re willing to connect. The major carrier is Air Tahiti Nui, which serves Los Angeles – Papeete. Air France also operates that route three times a week. United flies three days a week from San Francisco and has good award space in coach. Hawaiian flies Saturday service from Honolulu.
Whether or not business class awards are possible is a yes/no proposition (usually no). There’s not a lot of tricks to make it happen. Although right now Air Tahiti Nui which is an American Airlines and Delta partner is making great business class award space available for two passengers between Los Angeles and Papeete, Tahiti for October through December.
Hyatt just announced their new promotion and it’s surprisingly good. February 15 – May 15 members earn 1000 bonus points per night (1500 bonus points at Hyatt House and Hyatt Place brands) starting with your second stay.
In December I wrote about a woman suing Hilton claiming a hotel employee videotaped her in the shower and used the photos to blackmail her.
Now there’s any case being reported at a resort in Cape Code.
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.
Last week I covered attempts by new Air France KLM CEO Ben Smith to unify the two carriers and end KLM’s independence.
However KLM has been making money. Air France has not been. And the voting rights over KLM are not even majority held by Air France KLM…
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.
At Marriott and Hyatt the payment a hotel gets for your award night is not linked to the number of points you pay.
Most hotels actually want your award business. If you’re taking up a room that would otherwise go empty, it’s pure marginal revenue. And if you’re taking up a room on a night they’re full they get a large payment – generally equal to their average rate for the year, though not as high as the highest rate they might charge on that night. One hotel is even warning members about the impending award chart price increase for the property.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz took the stage at Gotham Hall in New York nearly 3 years ago. He was new on the job and looking to make a splash advancing the narrative that his airline was turning itself around, righting the ship.
It always seemed clear that United wouldn’t sustain their new inflight offering. Although in some ways I expected that there would be more progress actually rolling out the seats before it was cut back so far.
Businesses have credit profiles, and most small business owners don’t check theirs. Capital One just launched a new service — whether you’re a CapitalOne cardmember or not — called Business CreditWise. It provides access to a company’s credit report with data from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
The new tool lets business owners access credit details, “correct mistakes and understand what is impacting their overall credit report, free of charge.”
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 »
