Oct
01
2016
Drunk air marshals are now going to be on Cuba flights. This was a safety priority.
US Reaches Agreement for Drunk Air Marshals to Party in Cuba
About Gary Leff
Hilton Just Revealed Hotels that Will Cost More Points (and Less) Starting October 12
Oct
01
2016
Since Hilton’s award chart changes in 2013, there haven’t been huge additional changes.
Hilton decided to alter the way they made changes to how they re-assign hotels to award categories. Instead of an annual change to tons of hotels (a schedule they really weren’t wedded to in the past anyway) they decided they would make rolling changes throughout the year. And instead of informing all members proactively of these changes, they would just post them on a web page in the name of transparency.
Doha Airport Has a Theme Song and Music Video — But It Doesn’t Come Close to Munich’s
Oct
01
2016
Doha’s still-new Hamad International Airport is over the top in many ways. For instance there’s the giant Teddy Bear sculpture. It’s made out of bronze, is 23 feet tall, and weighs nearly 20 tons. A member of the Qatari royal family apparently purchased it for about $6.8 million. It had previously been displayed in front of the Seagram’s Building on Park Avenue in New York. There’s now a big clay sculpture there.
Amazing Award Availability: Use Delta Miles to Take the Whole Family to Asia
Sep
30
2016
Delta is moving its Minneapolis – Tokyo Narita flight over to Tokyo Haneda airport at the end of October and award availability is amazing.
Most days there are 9 or more business class saver awards available, although I’ve put together calendars showing when there are 6 or more business class seats. These cost 80,000 miles per person each way.
American Screwed Up Its Brand New Business Class Seat
Sep
30
2016
American’s new business class seat is the B/E Aerospace Super Diamond going into their Boeing 787-9, Airbus A350, and later retrofits of Boeing 777-200s.
The B/E Aerospace Super Diamond is one of the world’s best business class seats, but American seems to have made one very poor decision customizing theirs.
Here’s Why ‘Earn and Burn’ is the Best Strategy
Sep
30
2016
We’ve known devaluations were coming for a very long time. It was obvious when I wrote ten years ago that I was afraid the great values wouldn’t last.
I suggested that as more and more miles were printed, without a corresponding growth in airline capacity, we’d see devaluation. And truly outsized-value? I’ve always said that you should take advantage of the best awards, the ones that are orders of magnitude better than average redemption value, because they aren’t going to last.
Pilot Sent to Prison and Do American’s New Uniforms Give Flight Attendants Hives?
Sep
30
2016
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.
Always Remember to ‘Garden’ Your Travel Reservations
Sep
29
2016
It’s important to “do gardening” on your bookings, especially ones that you make relatively far in advance.
By gardening, I mean tending to the bookings — checking up on them, and doing minor maintenance.
Here are the things that can go wrong, but they are preventable mistakes!
You Always Get Upgraded When You Want Upgrades the Least
Sep
29
2016
Last week I needed to be in San Diego for one night. There aren’t any non-stops between Austin and San Diego, I rather expected Southwest might have one, but I wound up on American through Dallas. My flight into Dallas was a few minutes early but we had to wait about 20 minutes for a gate.
I wasn’t concerned as my relatively short connection time dwindled. I didn’t need to make it to my connecting gate before boarding started — for a simple overnight I just had my laptop bag and didn’t need any bin space. I’d be happy to be the last to board.
When 5/24 Doesn’t Apply, and When it Doesn’t Count
Sep
29
2016
Chase has said “we have restrictions related to the number of new cards customers can receive in a period of time.”
The conventional wisdom is that Chase seems only to want to approve people for this card if they haven’t applied for 5 new cards in the past 24 months.
