It’s your last chance to Vote in the Freddie Awards. Balloting ends as the month of March comes to a close (my understanding: 11:59pm on March 31 in the last inhabited time zone — so for many of you, early Sunday morning). The Freddies are the award in the loyalty industry, honoring the best in airline, hotel, and credit card programs. And it’s the voice of the frequent traveler, voted on by the program’s members which makes it in many ways the most meaningful. In my experience talking with programs, I’ve learned that they really do want to win these awards, in fact they want these awards the most, and at the margins they do listen to their customers and hear them through the awards, and have made changes or avoided making changes with an…
About Gary Leff
Around the Forums and Blogs for Wednesday, March 26
The Points Guy calls out Delta for failing to quickly fix the ‘IT issue’ that is preventing Skymiles from accessing business class award and upgrade inventory on Air France, while not doing anything to assist affected customers such as making more upgrades and awards available on their own product in the meantime. The problem has been ongoing, with little communication from Skymiles about when it might be solved, and one begins to wonder whether they aren’t exactly anxious to fix it (since that would entail higher redemption costs). Deals We Like highlights an offer for 20% off at Starwood hotel restaurants for showing your SPG member card. This is on top of the miles earned for spending at those restaurants. And it doesn’t require you to be a registered guest. Not all hotels participate. Online…
In an Era of Airline Consolidation, Elite Status Matters More Than Ever
It’s a rare publication that will listen to me opine endless, and then quote my rants extensively. So I have to give credit where credit is due. Financial site Minyanville.com ran a piece on consolidation in the airline industry and what it means for elite perks and miles. They quoted me extensively, and began by suggesting that fewer planes in the air, and planes that are more full, makes upgrades more difficult — it shifts those upgrades upwards to only the top elites. (Unlimited complimentary domestic upgrades does this, too.) Indeed, it’s a simple matter of supply and demand with regards to seat upgrades. With airline consolidations, there are now fewer planes and thus fewer seats on many routes, making upgrades scarce commodities. As such, both Raja and Gary Leff, co-founder of the frequent flyer…
$10 for $20 Skype Credit
I use Skype for most of my international calls at home (such as the the bmi Diamond Club call centers in India, for which there’s no U.S. number), the quality does vary but it does the trick. I also use it to call from abroad, when I’ve got internet connectivity. (When I’m roaming around I use an unlocked cell with a SIM card from OneSimCard.com which suits my needs in many countries.) CollegeBudget.com has $20 Skype Credit for $10, one per person. Your $10 purchase yields a $20 e-gift code that can be deposited at skype.com/voucher. The site says the voucher expires September 26th, but then in the fine print says it must be redeemed by September 30th. I assume one should redeem it right away, and that the funds deposited are treated as normal…
Citi Thank You Points Won’t Transfer to BA and Singapore After All?
Yesterday I linked to Dan’s Deals reporting that starting April 1, Citi Thank You Points would transfer to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer and to British Airways as well. I’ve generally found Dan to be reliable, as I noted at the time. Of course I’m relying on Dan’s Deals here for this information, I haven’t independently verified it yet, but I usually find Dan to be pretty reliable. I’ve since, however, received comment from Citi’s PR team. The information posted on DansDeals.com regarding transferring ThankYou Points to certain international airlines is not accurate. ThankYou members can redeem points for travel on any airline with no blackout dates in the ThankYou Travel Center. Currently ThankYou members cannot directly transfer their ThankYou Points to an airline. “Currently” seemed like a bit of a weasel word, because of course members…
What’s In My Laptop Bag?
Last week The Points Guy took Singapore’s all-business class service from Newark to Singapore and wrote about the travel products he took along with him on the world’s largest flight. Inspired by Brian, and sitting on board a much more pedestrian American AIrliens Pheonix – Chicago run powered by Gogo Inflight internet, I thought I’d share the contains of my laptop bag. Verizon MiFi. I create my own wireless hotspot, and the speeds are pretty good. 5 gigs of data are included in my plan each month and then I buy additional gigs at $10 each. It’s not for streaming movies, but it does the job with email and websurfing and covers me for uploading photos I want to include on the blog. Kensington Empower Adapter. Sadly too many aircraft still use the cigarette style…
Another Reason Not to Check Your Bags
200 thefts from checked bags. A day. Just at one airport. Think twice before you check your luggage at John F. Kennedy International Airport… All Rita Lamberg has left is an empty jewelry drawer and pictures of the $160,000 worth of watches, rings and necklaces that were stolen from her baggage at JFK Airport. “I am so sick. This is a lifetime, a lifetime of my savings,” Lamberg said. But Lamberg isn’t alone. Law enforcement sources told Kramer that thefts at the airport have increased at a staggering and alarming rate. There are now more that 200 a day — and that’s every day. Baggage handlers, jetway workers and even security people are all in on the ongoing scam to steal you blind. “The belly of the airplane has become like a flea market for…
Why Airlines Won’t Charge for Checked Bags or Internet in 10 Years, But There Will Be More Fees Than Ever
When I was a kid I was a pretty frequent flyer, mostly New York – Los Angeles (and I became a frequent People Express customer out of Newark). I used to get to the airport super early hoping to get a bulkhead seat. This was before elite seating, the best way to get the seats was to be first. See, there’s a limited number of exit rows and bulkheads on any given seat. One way to ration them is first come first served, or a modified version of who shows up at the airport first. Then they go to whomever has the lowest value of time. Another way to ration them is to charge for them, whomever values them the most will pay. And that’s what the airlines are doing now (though in many cases…
Fascinating Chatter from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Aviation Symposium
On Friday I spoke at the Phoenix Shy Harbor International Aviation Symposium, I’m not usually one for the aviation business-related events, but they wanted me to add comment on loyalty programs and also elite benefits and the intersection with ancillary revenue, so they had me out and the panels turned out to be fascinating. @CrankyFlier in particular did an outstanding job live-tweeting the event, so if you’re curious for the raw commentary you might check it out or hash tag #PHX2012. Some of the fascinating things I heard: Scott Kirby, on my panel, likes what John Pistole is doing at TSA to be more efficient. I wouldn’t give him that sort of credit, though in a sense compared to Kip Hawley — aside from protecting federal employee unons — that might well be true. Willie…
Why I’m Walking Away from the Marriott Platinum Challenge
I’ve never been a big fan of the Marriott Rewards program. It’s huge, and it’s popular, it’s been the biggest hotel program winner the past two years at the Frequent Traveler awards. They certainly have loyal members. But from the perspective of someone that values hotel elite benefits most in choice of program, it’s never especially appealed — largely because the terms and conditions of their program specifically excludes suites from the upgrade benefit, despite the program having the highest bar (75 nights) for earning top tier of any of the major hotel loyalty programs. Still, you can’t always control where you’re going to stay, and I was looking at a bunch of upcoming Marriott bookings. So I decided to go for an elite challenge with them. In fact, with a few incremental nights I…
