Category Archives for General.
Uber has announced a new loyalty program called Uber Rewards. It’s an improvement for customers because there’s earning for Uber transactions — you get rebates you did not get before — and better treatment for frequent Uber riders.
As much as I miss the best Thai food in the country Metro is one of the things that makes me glad I’ve moved away. It’s perhaps the only thing in the area even worse than the airport’s gate 35X.
You know — or can at least check — your Uber rating. But did you know you have an American Airlines customer rating too? It’s re-evaluated daily and used to determine when to grant exceptions, compensate you for problems, or go above and beyond to resolve situations.
UberEats now delivers from virtual restaurants — from restaurants that don’t actually exist.
It turns out that the food people want delivered isn’t always the same food they want in restaurants, and Uber can leverage excess capacity to produce food at a restaurant by having them make something else they don’t normally offer and branding that food as coming from a different restaurant that isn’t actually a place you can go.
Programs issue too many miles. There aren’t enough award seats, especially with planes flying full. They need to either increase the number of award seats or increase the cost of each seat, otherwise you just have frustrated members who can’t redeem.
At the same time programs don’t need to spend as much marketing to fill planes when planes are already full. But that’s an argument for reduced earning, not for changing redemption prices.
Programs with set award prices (award charts) usually devalue in a predictable way.
Hertz has just announced that they’ve become the first ‘non-air affiliate’ of the SkyTeam airline alliance that includes Delta, Air France KLM, Korean Air and others.
While more marketing tie-ins can be better than fewer, a car rental company is a somewhat strange brand to launch with. Renting cars is so nine years ago. Hertz was once the rental company for business travelers. In this extended montage from Up in the Air when George Clooney is grounded in Omaha he wants to buy a Chrysler Sebring from Hertz.
Airline deregulation was opposed by nearly all US airlines in 1978. It was championed by Senator Ted Kennedy (and his aide now Justice Stephen Breyer) and by consumer advocate Ralph Nader and signed into law by Jimmy Carter.
Bob Crandall was against deregulation then, and he’s against it now in retirement. And he’s blaming it for cramped airline seating. He also calls codesharing a ‘fraud’ to fool people.
Corporate travel policies are becoming more generous allowing employees to fly in premium cabins.
There’s a tight labor market and companies don’t want to lose their best employees. The spread between business and coach and winnowed down. With more competition for premium cabin seats there are fewer upgrades available.
When an airline pays out compensation for a delay, and you’re traveling for work, are you really entitled to keep the money? Shouldn’t you turn it over to your employer?
Let’s assume your employer bought the ticket and both travel and the delay were during business hours. You’re getting paid, and your employer is the one suffering the loss (of your productivity).
In 1974 ten Cadillacs (models from 1949 through 1963) were buried nose first half way into the ground. The cars were placed in a wheat field Marsh owned, and then in 1997 moved two miles west to a pasture belonging to Marsh along side Interstate 40.
Unquestionably Cadillac Ranch is one of the better stops along one of the world’s great drives (“Or perhaps you don’t want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth who’s only four short hours away?”).
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 »
