News and notes from around the interweb: What is fuel dumping? American is permitting voluntary changes and ticket refunds for Venezuela travel as a result of that country imposing new Visa requirements on American citizens. Would American Airlines buy Alaska? Historically the price for the Seattle-based airline has always been too high. And the DOJ would certainly demand a pound of flesh (off the top of my head, slots at O’Hare and gates at LAX). It would be a strategic complement. Of course one might argue similarly about an acquisition by ‘Anyone But United’. Terry Maxon has daylight images of American’s new Boeing 787 Why every day will be like a bad weather day at LAX… for the next 3 years. Passengers feel sorry for toddler traveling with loud, obnoxious parents (HT: Paul H.) The…
About Gary Leff
What Makes a Domestic Airline Lounge Special?
There are some really special, amazing airport lounges in the world — places that are more ‘top end private club’ than ‘somewhat more quiet waiting room’.
Delta’s First Story Didn’t Work. Their New Line Isn’t Any Better. Don’t Be Fooled.
When Delta removed all the award charts from their website without any notice (indeed, just weeks after they went into effect and less than 3 months since some were even posted), their initial story was that they had improved website award search enough that they were no longer needed. [W]e did remove Award charts today. Delta’s expanded search capabilities and calendar at delta.com offer more flexible and accurate view of Award prices. Of course, that was disingenuous at best. The website’s award pricing was still very broken It still doesn’t support many of Delta’s airline partners There’s no mutual exclusivity here, having a functional award booking site and having an award chart go perfectly well hand in hand. (Cf. United Airlines, Aeroplan, ANA, British Airways to name a few.) Now — after changing terms and…
Pursuing Deals — What Lines Will You Cross?
Gene Hackman to Tom Cruise in The Firm: The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is (a) whatever the IRS says, (b) a smart lawyer, (c) 10 years in prison, (d) all of the above. There are a lot of grey areas in miles and points, and those grey areas are largely the making of the programs themselves. They are large and complicated and the people who manage them don’t always understand or remember the rules they’ve created. What Rules Are We Obliged to Follow and When is it Ok to Push the Envelope? When it comes time to write terms and conditions for a promotion, they don’t always do a full and complete job thinking through the implications. US Airways Dividend Miles used to be notorious for sloppily written terms. And so millions…
Airports Will Let You Pet Dogs to Relieve Stress, Private Jet Standards, and How the Tax Code May Have Stolen Costco Away from Amex
News and notes from around the interweb: From my award booking partner Steve Belkin, aka beaubo, comes a new project. Was Citibank able to obtain the Costco co-brand relationship because it had lost so much darned money in the recent past? Abercrombie & Fitch’s private jet. Mr Jefferies, who was pushed out in December amid slumping sales, once had near 50-page “Aircraft Standards” rulebook for those who worked as his crew. Male staffers had to be clean-shaven, wear a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, flip-flops and boxer briefs. They also had to have a “spritz” of the company’s cologne. It specified which music to play and stipulated staff will wear black gloves when handling silverware and white gloves to lay the table.Several airports are rolling out comfort dogs… that you can pet to relieve the…
40% Bonus When You Buy Alaska Miles (Allows One-Way Partner Awards With Stopover)
Alaska Airlines is offering a 40% bonus when you purchase or gift miles. That’s actually a pretty good deal compared to other airlines with similar bonuses, because the starting price on their points is lower. Through April 3, there’s a tiered bonus in place. At the top end you’re buying miles for 2.1 cents apiece. This isn’t an uncommon offer (see for instance here) but it’s as good an offer as I see. Key things to know: You can buy up to 40,000 miles per transaction. But you can make as many transactions as you like — there’s no limit to the number of miles that Alaska will sell you, or to the number of bonus miles you can earn with this promotion. But you can only use the same credit card up to 4…
1000 Free Points from Club Carlson Hotels
Club Carlson is giving away prizes to people who register and follow them on twitter. The giveaway on twitter happens March 19th. I’m sure I won’t have that front of mind on the 19th. But you get 1000 points just for registering, and you can do that now and forget it. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The #HashtagHotelPromo Sweepstakes is sponsored by Carlson Hotels, Inc. Open to legal residents of fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada (excluding Quebec), Guam, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland, United Kingdom, the Bahamas, and Chile, who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. Sweepstakes begins on March 19, 2015 at 11:00:00 a.m. EDT and ends on March 19, 2015 at 10:59:59 p.m. EDT.Official Rules. (HT:…
What Are You: Bulkhead or Non-Bulkhead?
Here’s the seatmap for a flight I just booked. You’ll see I selected an extra legroom aisle seat, and opted not to select the bulkhead row. This is an American Airlines MD80. Bulkhead seats often have better legroom than even ‘main cabin extra’ or ‘economy plus’ types of seating. At a minimum you don’t have anyone reclining into your space. As a result, bulkhead seats are very popular. On the other hand, I avoid bulkhead seats when I can for three reasons: They’re narrower. They usually have tray tables in the armrests, so the armrests don’t move. Carry on bags have to go in the overhead, not at your feet. That means you may need to board earlier to ensure you get convenient space. Since you can’t put any bags at your feet, larger electronics…
What ‘No Foreign Currency Transaction Fees’ Really Means (and What it Doesn’t Mean)
When you use a standard credit card, and make a purchase outside of your home country, there’s generally a fee. If your purchase is in a foreign currency, you’re subject to your payment network’s foreign exchange rates. Your your card imposes foreign transaction fees, they’ll charge you those — often as much as 3% on top of the amount of the charge. Even if your card does not impose foreign transaction fees, and if your transaction is in a foreign currency, you’re still going to have the purchase converted to your home currency. And the payment network is likely to make money doing that for you. You’re still going to be better off with, say, Visa or MasterCard doing it for you rather than a restaurant or hotel — you’ll get a better. But make…
The New Air France Process That May Prevent You From Booking an Award
Six weeks ago I wrote about the frustrations of a frequent flyer program fraud detection unit gone off the rails. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue shut down the account of someone who simply transferred points in from American Express Membership Rewards and redeemed those points for a ticket. The American Express account, Flying Blue account, and tickets were all for the same person. (American Express no longer even lets you transfer points to other people any more.) I learned about readers who had had similar experiences and I also heard from a fraud unit employee who actually claimed they wouldn’t permit transferring in points just to book awards. [T]he use of our frequent flyer accounts as boxes opened to transfer miles with our non air partners won’t be allowed anymore. Air France is adamant that…
