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.
It’s been some time since there have been generous offers just to sign up for a frequent flyer program, essentially to start a permission marketing relationship. Maybe 16 years ago United Airlines was giving out 1000 miles to new members referred by an existing member, and rewarding the member that referred them to. But usually new member bonuses have required some kind of activity – proof of a customer’s value to the airline – before being triggered.
Thanksgiving air travel is going to set 2020 records, and the confidence level for that can be adjusted up significantly after 1 million people cleared TSA security checkpoints yesterday.
We’re now at a place where intertemporal substitution makes a great deal of sense. We’ll travel less now, and travel more in the summer. We’ll go out to eat less now, and go out to eat more in the summer. I simultaneously cannot wait for travel to recover and also hope it waits until 2021 to do so.
Once so many people have either had Covid-19 or been vaccinated against it that it’s equally likely that someone is vulnerable to it as not, restrictions on those who aren’t vulnerable to the virus (and therefore cannot spread it) are going to be harder to maintain. We’re going to see more people rebelling against mask requirements on planes in late March than we’ve seen so far.
The worst airport gate in American, Washington National’s gate 35X, is officially put to rest and will no longer cause misery to travelers.
With fewer flights, American Airlines 50 seat regional jet departures have been moved to the main terminal, instead of having to take an escalator down to a dark and dingy holding pen before being driven to bus gates.
Aegean Miles & Bonus is one of the most lucrative Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. Awards booked through them across Star Alliance partner airlines require fewer miles than in most other programs. So when they’re giving away 5000 redeemable miles just for signing up by December 1 those miles actually get you much closer to an award than you’d think.
On Monday a frustrated passenger on Thai Vietjet’s flight VZ305 from Phuket to Bangkok decided to unload some steam and muttered “I think this airline should be bombed” as the gate agent checked his boarding pass.
A deleted scene from the sitcom Friends offers a pretty good reason why he shouldn’t have been arrested for this.
American Airlines is offering the easiest Gold status I’ve ever seen from a public offer, and a path to Platinum with just two flights as well. Just sign up for Mastercard Travel. Details of the promotion are available under ‘latest offers’ but there’s no registration required. And you don’t even need to be a current elite frequent flyer with another airline.
I’ve heard from a number of Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and Ambassador members who have shared that they aren’t getting upgraded like they’re used to. That seems surprising at first. With the hotel industry in an unprecedented crisis of low occupancy, an upgrade should be easier than ever to come by!
I asked Marriott about this, and a spokesperson confirmed that members aren’t being upgraded more frequently this year – but they’re also not having their requests denied more often either. Here’s what’s happening.
A “wild” police chase through the attic of a Michigan Days Inn ended when one of the fugitives got “tangled up in the piping system of the attic” and her co-conspirator “fell through the ceiling” and into the hotel’s pool.
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 »
