Category Archives for Commentary.
The Global Loyalty Organization hosted loyalty leader predictions for 2024. A lot of it was milquetoast, and not really actionable, as so much corporate speak is wont to be. But there were a few real insights here. Four things especially stood out.
You hear the words “mile a minute” and find yourself pondering the concept of earning bonus miles as a function of time.
You answer the question, “How many miles per gallon do you get?” with “It depends on what credit card I use.”…
Following my stab at a list of the 13 best movies about travel, I thought I’d work to come up with the very best songs about travel.
That’s a very different exercise than the best travel songs, this isn’t a ‘play list for the road’ it’s about borrowing someone else’s poetry to describe the travel experience. There’s no question that George Gershwin didn’t write Rhapsody in Blue to be about travel, but it’s equally clear that the 1924 composition has become inextricably linked with United Airlines.
What songs most evoke travel for you and are missing from my list? Which ones here are new to you?
U.S. tipping culture is insane, it’s gotten out of control and what’s worse is that it’s getting exported to the rest of the world. Workers should be paid by their employer, not by an uncomfortable system where customers are supposed to pay extra – on top of posted charges – paying some amorphous amount meant to supplement an employee’s wages.
Some people believe that the scheme is meant to encourage better service, to align incentives, because apparently companies are bad at managing their workers, creating a customer-focused culture, or providing the incentives needed to deliver a quality experience.
The way that I think about negotiation, arbitrage, and frequent flyer miles all tie back to one scene in an obscure 1984 file, Over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Elliott Gould plays a man with a dream to open a restaurant in Manhattan who finds the perfect opportunity. He asks his uncle, played by Sid Caesar, for funding and Caesar agrees — on the condition he leave his Catholic girlfriend (Margaux Hemingway) and marry a “nice Jewish girl.” Seven year old Sarah Michelle Gellar has an uncredited role.
FedEx pilot crews have been told that – despite the national pilot shortage – they are overstaffed, because air cargo demand is down. Pilots are receiving minimum hours only, for the most part, and they expect that to remain “for the foreseeable future.” This is an industry-wide issue.
As a result, the shipping company is telling its pilots to go work for American Airlines through one of their regional airlines.
Chen Siming, regularly jailed in China for commemorating his country’s 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, managed to leave his country in July and turned up this weekend in the transit area of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport seeking refuge from persecution.
Daraius Dubash is currently suing the city of Houston for violating his rights.
It’s possible that there aren’t beings from outer space, that if there are we’ll never find them, that they’ve probed us and are avoiding contact (prime directive?) or even that it’s actually future human societies traveling back in time (or else, why be so interested in earth over everything else that’s out there?).
The Mexican government seems to be suggesting that not only are there aliens, but we have bodies, and we’ve extensively experimented on them. They’ve even shared the footage.
Twenty two years ago today I was sitting in my office in Northern Virginia. I was fortunate not to be on the road, although several work colleagues were and it was a challenge to help them get home when planes were grounded on 9/11. A whole generation of adults was born after that day that remains ingrained in my experience.
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 »
