Just off the phone with American Express, and their contract renewal for the co-brand relationship with Delta means that the anticipated cap on transfers from Membership Rewards to Delta — the limit of 250,000 points transferred per calendar year effective January 1 — will not happen. Presumably other partner transfers, where the relationship isn’t as significant as the American Express one, will still see this cap implemented. Update 10:38am Eastern: The cap is removed for all transfer partners, not just American Express. I rarely recommended transferring to Delta. Their awards tended to be tougher to get and cost more than those of many other major currencies. But it was ‘easy’ for many — Delta was the last remaining major U.S. airline that American Express points transferred to. There are a surprising number of people out…
About Gary Leff
BRUTALLY HONEST: Delta Declares You’re Not Entitled to Compensate Even If They Injure You
See below for an update. Historically airlines have sugar-coated changes. When they reduce the value of their loyalty program, increase fees, or otherwise making the travel experience more cumbersome, they tend to couch changes as enhancements. We should be happy that we’ll get fewer miles, have fewer seats with extra legroom, and a more difficult time earning elite status. A given change may be good or bad for the airline’s business, but either way airlines are rarely candid with what they’re doing. They speak as though they think we’re too stupid to know the difference and to me that’s even worse than making a change I don’t like. Remarkably, recently several airlines have been on a streak of blunt candor. Air Canada devalues its elite benefits and declares ‘we are not a charity’ United makes…
LaGuardia is Slated to Get a New Central Terminal in 2021. Wanna Bet?
Some folks were surprised to see American Express build a new lounge in the Central Terminal at New York LaGuardia airport. At the time it opened I pointed out that they have a 7 year lease on the space, and the new terminal isn’t scheduled to open until 2021… “but I don’t think anybody believes it will really happen that soon.” Thus it’s no surprise that Airport Policy & Security News (yes, that’s a thing) reports that the Central Terminal redesign is already hitting major process snags. On October 20th , the day before the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was to announce the winner of its competition for a $3.6 billion concession to replace the obsolescent Central Terminal at LaGuardia Airport, Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a news conference (with Vice President…
Building the Perfect First Class Ground Experience
There are several elements to the first class experience that start and end entirely outside the in-air experience. Airlines that compete at the top end have invested heavily in their ground experience alongside their inflight soft and hard products. Some of the best are: Thai Airways Lufthansa Qantas A notch below, in my view: Emirates Etihad And then: Asiana Cathay Pacific I’ll go out on a limb and claim that Qantas has the best first class lounge food. It’s nearly all cooked to order out of an open kitchen, with no buffet (though there are substantive bar snacks strategically placed throughout the lounge). Singapore’s Private Room has a good cooked-to-order menu, and a willingness to go off-menu to accommodate preferences, but I’ve found the food to be only average. Lufthansa’s Do&Co offerings are quite good…
Hyatt Eliminating Elite Room Discounts, and Changing Confirmed Bed Type Policy
When Hyatt added a new rewards category 7 and made other (negative) changes to the Gold Passport program a year ago, they introduced a couple of positive features as well: Cash and points awards 20% off rates for elite members (subject to availability) Cash and points was a permanent feature of the program, and a really good value for category 2 through 6 hotels. Unlike traditional award nights, as well, the rates are paid rates and eligible to use Diamond Suite Upgrades on, plus earn stay and night credit towards elite status and promotional earning. No More ‘My Elite Rate’ in 2015 The 20% off ‘My Elite Rate’ didn’t make much sense to me, and I’m not surprised to learn that it will not be coming back for 2015. Whereas I used to sometimes wind…
Fuel Rewards Signup Bonus, United Upgrade Changes, and Miles and Points Goes Mainstream
News and notes from around the interweb: Mommy Points was back on ABC’s Nightline this time helping a family leverage their everyday activities to earn points. It was like a reality show, Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon Ramsey does a makeover of a restaurant, Summer drives up to a home and gives a miles and points makeover — and helps a family earn enough points for a trip in just a few weeks. Go, Summer! New Fuel Rewards Network signup bonus Use of United’s Global Upgrade certificates on Lufthansa has gone electronic which is an improvement over the old paper system. Only Q fares in economy and higher are eligible for upgrading with these on Lufthansa, and the cheapest fare bucket in premium economy and in business will not allow upgrades to a higher cabin. Uber…
Singapore Reverses Course, Agrees to Honor Mistake Fare
Last week I reported that Singapore Airlines was refusing to honor a business class mistake fare between Sydney and London. It wasn’t a cheap fare — about US$3000 roundtrip — but apparently intended as an economy rather than a business class fare. There are varying reports of between 400 and 900 tickets purchased. And after much criticism of the decision to tell these customers to pound sand they’ve changed their minds and will make good on the tickets. SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) said on Monday it will allow about 400 passengers to fly business class after they purchased fares at economy-class prices in Australia following an embarrassing ticketing bungle. …About 400 passengers will fly up the front of the plane using tickets that were as much as A$5,000 (S$5,500) cheaper than they should have been. Singapore…
Hyatt Changes the Cost of Awards at 15% Of Their Hotels
Hyatt has published a list of hotels that will be increasing or decreasing in award category for 2016. Last year’s program changes were a reasonably big deal although very much not across the board. This year’s on the other hand isn’t bad at all. All in all 70 hotels or about 15% of the program is changing award category. And many more hotels are going down — costing fewer points — than going up. 22 hotels are going up a category, 48 hotels are going down a category, and only a single hotel is moving two categories — the Grand Hyatt Shenyang drops from category 4 to category 2. 7 hotels go from category 1 to category 2. These are mostly Hyatt Place properties including two in Denver. 14 hotels drop from category 2 to…
American Airlines: How to Get Your Two Workforces to Resent Each Other
As American and US Airways continue to merge their operations, one of the key issues is labor integration — and not just getting combined work contracts for flight attendants, pilots, and other groups, but getting the two work forces to operate as one and to be be both happy and productive. American management does realize that they need to avoid the kind of ‘us vs. them’ mentality that often pervades mergers. Legacy Continental flight attendants sometimes still announce that their United flights are operated by Continental crew. They’re proud of their heritage, think they’re better, and resent legacy United employees. So when American’s CEO says things like this, he probably isn’t helping: Mr. Parker said the most surprising thing of the past year was how many things needed improving at American once he arrived from…
United Running Several Award Discounts, Some Intentional… Some Maybe Not
In addition to the special deal pricing Star Alliance awards at the price of United awards through Mileage Plus, United also launched two published award sales. United is offering 20% off domestic economy awards to several US cities. Book by December 30 for travel January 12 through February 12, 2015. Aspen Bozeman Durango Fort Lauderdale Fort Myers Jackson Hole Mammoth Lakes Miami Montrose/Telluride Salt Lake City San Diego Santa Barbara Sarasota Sun Valley Vail West Palm Beach Yampa Valley What’s interesting is that they’re offering this discount even though it’s hardly low season t omany of these cities — ski destinations and sun destinations alike. There’s also an offer for 20% off Hawaii, Mexico, and Canada. That makes an economy award 20,000 miles roundtrip to Canada, 28,000 to Mexico, and 36,000 to Hawaii — although…
