Sep 01 2016

Passengers complain that they aren’t served food anymore in coach most of the time. When I first started traveling for business (and certainly growing up), passengers complained that they were served food. Because airline food was a joke.

Back when United’s premium cabin meals were branded with celebrity chef Jacques Pepin they actually had economy meals which were chef-branded. United’s chef in economy was Sheila Lukins.

Thirty years ago of course United had an economy meals partnership with McDonalds — with happy meal toys (I have both Ronald McDonald and Grimace). United replaced the galley carts with ones specially-designed to keep the burger warm while the lettuce and bun stayed cool.

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Sep 01 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.

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Sep 01 2016

With US airlines regularly offering less value for their points, I’ve been putting together this series with background, tips, and tricks for frequent flyer programs programs whose points can be very useful to you and that you can earn easily by transferring in from bank rewards currencies.

Here are 16 things to know about the United MileagePlus Program:

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Sep 01 2016

Hyatt used to let you book a ‘studio’ room at their Hyatt Residence Club (timeshare) properties for 12,000 points per night — flat — regardless of property. The price was the same regardless of property and had remained fixed this way for many years. Higher level rooms were available at fixed prices as well.

When Hyatt made changes to award prices at several hotels August 1 they also made changes to the redemption structure for Hyatt Residence Club properties. Only they didn’t announce those changes in advance.

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Sep 01 2016

American Airlines was behind United and Delta in devaluing its award chart and its elite program because it had bigger fish to fry. Finishing the US Airways merger came first. The internal mantra was “integrate before we innovate.”

But key elements of backend integration are slipping, there are huge gaps in American’s IT that drive customer service costs and limit revenue growth, while American focuses on reprogramming who gets upgrades.

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Aug 31 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.

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Aug 31 2016

Regular readers know that I love the Maldives. I’ve been 5 years in a row. It’s the only place I’ve found where I can really unplug. The distance is a feature not a bug, by the time I get there I’m really ready to relax and the time difference helps me to do it — I can answer work emails in the morning, and everyone is gone from the office the rest of the day so I can just enjoy myself.

I’ve gone to the same place each time, because I could use points, but there are some fantastic properties that I’d love to try some day. One that’s really worth checking out is Loama Resort.

You’re going to get to stay there before me, because I’m giving a stay to a reader.

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Aug 31 2016

One of the best things about Starwood Preferred Guest is that they have many participating properties that are really nice, aspirational places where I really want to spend my points.

I make a lot of business stays at cookie cutter hotels domestically. I like to reward myself with special, unique stays which the points I earn make possible.

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Aug 31 2016

Hyatt is back with the same promotion they offered April through June just with a different name. Instead of ‘Stay More Play More’ this one is called ‘More Points More Play’.

Registration begins September 1, and stays September 1 through November 30 will earn incrementally more bonus points — up to 75,000 points.

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