I’ve argued that if Marriott really wanted they could make their loyalty program the best in the world. While it remains to be seen what path they choose, we learned three things that should be relevant to consumers from yesterday’s quarterly earnings call:
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.
Effective December 5, Alaska Airlines will start taking fare class into account when determining upgrade priority.
In addition, coach award tickets will become upgradable. Full, refundable coach awards (these book into ‘Z’ inventory) will be eligible for instant upgrade to first class for elite members.
American Airlines was the first Gogo inflight internet customer in 2008. Four years later most, but not all, mainline aircraft had the service.
They installed the air to ground service, and largely didn’t upgrade to newer generations of the technology. As a result on many planes it’s super slow.
American should be driving quickly to a fast, consistent solution — not taking years to get to a fragmented one.
JetSmarter is a membership service that lets you take available seats on private jet flights for free, or get access to charter a flight yourself. There are last minute deals which vary and they run certain routes as shuttles.
They are running all seats on New York – DC flights free for anyone, member or not this week and next week. Non-members can download the app and schedule a free private jet flight between Washington Dulles and Teterboro in New Jersey.
On October 27, Virgin Australia flight VA740 from Gold Coast to Melbourne was instructed to land by someone who wasn’t air traffic control
The plane came witin 275 feet of the runway before the real air traffic control called off the landing. The Virgin Australia 737 climbed to 3800 feet and made a go-round.
Airline alliances were supposed to represent seamless integration, a precursor to the current promise of ‘joint business ventures’ where airlines cooperated and coordinated to create passenger experiences that were nearly metal-neutral. It wasn’t supposed to matter which airline you flew as there would be alliance-wide product standards and assistance during irregular operations.
Willie Walsh, the CEO of IAG which is the parent of oneworld members British Airways and Iberia says that airline alliances won’t exist in 10 years.
If you link your social media accounts to Marriott Rewards by December 7 you’ll get 500 points each for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
This takes just a few moments and the points post right away. And of course you can instantly transfer Marriott points to Starwood at a 3:1 ratio if you wish, so you have a choice of 1500 Marriott Rewards points or 500 Starwood Starpoints from this promotion.
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.
Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America during the financial crises. It was effectively a bail out. Of course that put Bank of America on the hook for a good deal of liability. It also means that they issue the Merrill Lynch credit card, and they apparently want new cardmembers because they’ve got an aggressive sign up bonus for the product: 50,000 points after $3,000 in spend within the first 90 days.
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 »
