By now the world is aware of a San Francisco television station ‘confirming’ the names of the pilots of Asiana 214 which crashed on landing in San Francisco last weekend. I first saw the story on Matthew’s blog. Ben covered it as well. When I saw the clip on YouTube yesterday there were fewer than 1000 views. Now as of this writing there have been nearly 2 million. In case it’s new to you: The San Francisco television station insisted it really wasn’t their fault and indeed in the televised report they claimed the pilot names were confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board. My first thought was how could this be possible? Now we learn that the pilot names were confirmed by a spokesperson for the NTSB. who happens to have been an intern.…
About Gary Leff
You Have to Pick Just One: Should You Be a Marriott Rewards or Ritz-Carlton Member?
Reader Andrew asks, There is Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards. How do these two work together? Is one better than the other? How do the 2 statuses work? Marriott acquired Ritz-Carlton in 1998, but the hotels had limited participation in the Marriott Rewards program: you could spend points for Ritz-Carlton stays, but that was it. Luxury chains have for the most part eschewed points, the belief was that they provide recognition not freebies and compete to offer the best luxury experience not guest kickbacks. That seemed like a mistake to me, but of course I start with a presumption that loyalty programs with formalized tiers and defined benefits sett clear stretch goals for your customers which incentivize them to stay more. After the drop in hotel stays during the Great Recession, Marriott made a strategic…
Adding Insult to Injury: Elite Status Devaluation Edition
Frontier Airlines isn’t the greatest airline. Regional carrier Republic bought them, along with Midwest Airlines. They’ve cut things to the bone — they even eliminated Midwest’s cookies (gone long ago, the all premium cabin seating and fine dining meals). They took away advance seat assignments and cut mileage earning for tickets booked through online travel agencies (although in reality they just filed fares to trick those agencies — parallel fares 10 cents cheaper that online sites default to, that take away benefits, while making fares that are pennies higher available to those booking sites which include benefits — but which the sites are incapable of displaying online). To date they’ve cut either from all customers, or from infrequent customers primarily. But as customers of the merged carrier learned this week, there’s more to cut. And…
Video: How to Score Airline Upgrades
Yesterday I posted video advice on scoring the best hotel upgrades. The message I got from readers is that some people like video, others don’t. Many want the high points or transcript in writing along with the video, point taken for the future. Some find these too basic, in some ways that’s the point, others find them pitched just right. Hopefully those who find them useful will watch, others will ‘get’ pretty quickly that the next post(s) down on the blog are more in line with preferences. A companion piece that Sean Colahan put together with my advice late last year is how to upgrade airline flights, which follows up on yesterday’s “Why International Mileage Upgrades are So Expensive and Hard to Get”. Sean did a fantastic job with these considering what he had to…
Delta Sleeps Around, Cheats on Starwood with Club Carlson
Delta sees itself as a highly valuable marketing platform, they even engaged magazine online ad sales gurus to figure out how to monetize their Delta.com platform. And they’ve tried to do deals with hotel chains where they envision themselves as an online travel agency like Orbitz and Expedia, seeking to take large commissions for the bookings they send to lodging chains. The big deal they did this year was with Starwood, the introduction of Crossover Rewards that allows reciprocal entry-level elite recognition for the elites of the other program and also ‘double dipping’ points earning between the two programs in a fairly modest way. Starwood and Delta essentially entered into a ‘best friends’ agreement to share customers and reward each others’ customers. The extent to which the benefits are modest, though, I was fairly curious…
MegaDO Charter Experience Goes On Sale at 2pm Eastern Today!
Last week I outlined the upcoming Star Mega DO (as well as explained what a ‘Mega DO’ charter trip is). Frequent flyers from all over come together, charter a plane, and do inside tours with travel-related companies. This one will be a flight charter originating in Toronto, flying to Tucson, and then to San Francisco and will feature programs with Air Canada, United, an Air Force base behind-the-scenes visit, and the Rimowa luggage factory. Tickets go on sale at 2pm Eastern. The event will be held October 22-25. Full program details are here (at frequent flyer community Milepoint.com). Prices are: Coach: $999 Economy Plus: $1299 Tommy Class (middle seat blocked): $1799 (was sold out, but equipment change opens up 4 seats) Tommy Class Emergency Exit (middle seat blocked): $1999 (was sold out, but equipment change…
Register Now for Hilton’s 3rd Quarter Promotion
Hilton’s third quarter promotion is Triple Your Trip — Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights earn triple points from July 9 through September 30. Monday through Thursday stays earn double points. You should register for the promotion even if you don’t anticipate staying at a Hilton property between July 9 and September 30. That’s because if you do wind up unexpectedly or last minute with a Hilton stay, you’ll probably forget to go back and register. It’s easiest just to click the link and enter your HHonors number and be done with it. The promotion isn’t lucrative enough that you should be shifting any stays towards Hilton, especially after this year’s devaluation of HHonors points. The bonus more or less just makes up for how much less Hilton points are worth than a few months ago…
Best Airline Complaint Letter Ever Gets the Worst Response Ever
A complaint letter written to Caribbean airline LIAT went viral a couple of weeks ago when it was publicized by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin. I didn’t write about it at the time because it wasn’t that funny, even if it was being touted as the greatest complaint letter ever. Sadly, the story goes from mildly amusing to just plain said. Here’s the letter, then I will explain. Dear LIAT, May I say how considerate it is of you to enable your passengers such an in-depth and thorough tour of the Caribbean. Most other airlines I have travelled on would simply wish to take me from point A to B in rather a hurry. I was intrigued that we were allowed to stop at not a lowly one or two but a magnificent six airports…
Video: How to Score the Best Hotel Upgrades
I got a lot of great feedback on the videos that Conde’ Nast Travel posted with my advice on the best time to book award travel, the best hotel perks for business travelers, and the best first class rewards. I don’t have video production skills, and don’t figure that most readers actually want to look at me. But videos are a popular way to convey information, and many of you find it useful to listen to advice and not just read it. So while I’ve written up my advice on how to score the best hotel upgrades, and redeeming hotel pooints for upgrades, I thought I’d also share a video that I recorded last year on getting hotel upgrades. Production quality isn’t as strong as the Conde’ Nast videos. But I think Sean Colahan did…
Why International Mileage Upgrades are So Expensive and Hard to Get — And What a Better Strategy Would Be
A couple of reader questions about upgrades. JC said, Hi there! Love the insights you share. I know award ticketing requires of me a lot of foresight and planning, but what would really make a difference on my end is how to most efficiently book award tickets/upgrades on the web. And Joy asked, For Star Alliance or Oneworld, what’s the cheapest way to upgrade an Economy flight booked into a cheap fare class (like K or L)? It seems quite expensive on United, for instance, because you have to pay some $300 in addition to the miles you use. Can you do it with a partner airline’s miles for cheaper? Conventional wisdom has always said that the best way to use miles was confirmed international upgrades to business class (buying a coach ticket, using miles…
