A Hyatt Diamond can book an award for someone else using their points and confer top elite status for that stay.
The Hyatt-MGM relationship gives you a back door to gift Hyatt elite status to a spouse as well.
American Express announced a new 8000 square foot Centurion Lounge for Hong Kong’s terminal 1. This will be the first American Express Centurion Lounge outside the U.S. They’ve also provided updates on two other lounge projects.
American Airlines introduced complimentary beer, wine, and spirits in its lounges in late 2010. However, premium brands are for pay.
They’ve opened up the bar a bit though because of their club lounge renovation project. Right now 3 American Airlines Admirals Clubs are currently offering complimentary premium beverages to guests. Each person can have two premium beverages during their visit.
Spirit Airlines allows you to carry a personal item onboard their aircraft. If you want to bring on a full-sized carry on you have to pay.
A couple of weeks ago American revealed that they’re going to follow United’s lead and forbid passengers buying basic economy fares from bringing a full-sized carry on onboard as well.
“My captain friend sent me this photo. Saudi prince bought ticket for his 80 hawks.”
These birds could each bring one dead animal on the plane because they’re allowed one carrion. Word is the inflight movie was Angry Birds.
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 night’s Delta’s IT systems melted down, flights couldn’t get necessary information to take off, and ultimately there were significant delays and cancellations.
Today’s flying on Delta is going to be messy. This is exacerbated by Delta’s hubris.
Here’s a free online website that will show you what flights have seats for sale, and the availability in various fare buckets.
This is useful because you often want to find flights with seats available when your flight gets cancelled and you want to find other plans to suggest to an airline instead of just relying on them to figure out how to get you home.
Last week when Rob Burgess flagged the amazing redemption value of Al Wadi resort — all villas with their own private pools that is part of Marriott — I went ahead and made a booking for an upcoming brief stay in the UAE.
It used to be a Banyan Tree and now it’s part of Ritz-Carlton. This hotel costs just 40,000 Marriott Rewards points per night. Starwood points transfer to Marriott. So I had about 48,000 Marriott points in my account. I transferred 24,000 Starwood points over (at 1-to-3), and that gave me 120,000 Marriott points which is enough for 3 nights.
According to the FAA Delta has requested a nationwide ground stop for its mainline and “sub-carriers.” This ground stop applies to domestic destinations only.
This comes one week after United’s computers melted down and isn’t the first time it’s happened to Delta, either. Back in August they falsely blamed a power outage for problems.
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 »
