News and notes from around the interweb:
- The man who sued Continental Airlines for refusing to accept cash for inflight sales lost. (HT: uggboy on Milepoint)
- Removing hard inquiries from your credit report. ‘Bumpage’ isn’t as easy as it used to be.
- Hilton HHonors changed its terms and conditions with no notice to say that elite benefits don’t apply to things that hotels charge resort fees for. That way elites can’t argue that since they get those things free they shouldn’t be on the hook for resort fees. When resort fees shouldn’t be charged anyway, since they’re really just a hidden part of the room rate. Poor form to take away elite benefits on resort stays to extract resort fees from them, and poor form to make changes buried in the terms and conditions of the program with no notice or even announcement.
- Delta’s partnership with Starwood is expanding even further: Westin Heavenly Inflight Bedding for international business class. (HT: skyvan on Milepoint)
Hilton’s change isn’t surprising – it’s what the market will bear. Just look at the petition to require disclosure of hotel fees at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/hotels-mandatory-resort-fees-be-prohibited-ftc-federal-trade-commission-unless-added-quoted-room/bg8VlpLR – a whopping 96 signatures.
Starwood already charges resort fees for most resorts even for award bookings. They can charge up to $60 for St. Regis Bahia Beach, for example. So Hilton may as well lay out all the bad news at once, given the recent award devaluation announcement!
Consider resort fees like YQ charges on airline award tickets. Yes it sucks, but that’s how the industry has evolved.
@Ninmurai, I can’t consider “resort fees” to be like YQ for a couple of reasons. First, YQ must by law be included in the price you are quoted when you look up a price at a website. “Resort fees” are hidden in small print somewhere. Second, everyone who flies uses fuel, many who stay at a hotel property do not use the services the “resort fee” is for. The “resort fee” is simply a “We lie about our prices” charge, and I faithfully boycott all properties that do this.
Is there anything about the Hilton HHonors program that is worth keeping? I gave up on it three devaluations ago.
Interesting note about the resort fee at Hilton.
When I stayed at the Waldof-Astoria Park City on the Reserve free nights, I was told that the fee is waived for HHonors Gold members. It was especially nice because the fee is $35 there. I wonder if this spells the end of that perk?