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.
A year ago Virgin America partnered with Airbnb to award miles for stays and successful rental listings.
Now Delta has launched a partnership, awarding 1 SkyMile per dollar spent, and is touting themselves as the first ‘major’ airline to link up with the sharing economy stay provider.
The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card offers a $100 discount on the cost of two passengers traveling roundtrip in domestic economy.
The discount allows between 2 and 5 passengers to travel on the same itinerary and the cardmember must be one of those passengers. However there may have been a change to the benefit that makes it less game-able.
While this isn’t reflected on the Virgin America Elevate website, it was flagged by mipaho on reddit and I’ve since confirmed that Virgin America is ending its partnership with Virgin Atlantic on November 13.
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.
In addition to new service announcements for Fort Lauderdale and New Orleans, British Airways has just announced Oakland to London Gatwick starting March 28, 2017.
United non-stops from Washington Dulles, Chicago, and New York to Paris are available from $431 roundtrip. There are slightly cheaper connecting options as well.
Some airlines use premium bath amenities in their lavatory as part of signaling their quality product. For instance when I flew Etihad earlier this year they were using Le Labo in first class and Acca Kappa in the Residence. I’ve had Ferragamo Tuscan Soul in Singapore Airlines first class.
Usually the best stuff is confined to amenity kits, though, and not the lavatories. And certainly not the lavatories in coach.
Starwood is offering a 50% discount on purchase of Starpoints. This is the biggest discount ever on Starwood Starpoints, which I believe is the most valuable currency (one point is worth more than one of any other point).
The ‘regular’ discount that Starwood runs occasionally is 25%, and the biggest previous discount was 35% over the summer.
Here are the full details of Hyatt’s new program which launches March 1. This is their biggest revamp since 2009.
Hyatt has improved their benefits for top tier elites, while making top tier tougher to earn. They remain uncompetitive at the mid-tier. And they’re diminished the importance of their credit card at a time the rest of the industry is swelling elite ranks through credit card partnerships.
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 »
