Category Archives for General.
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.
Singapore Airlines used to operate the longest flights in the world, Singapore – Los Angeles and Singapore – Newark non-stops, operated with a flying gas can an Airbus A340-500. Flights operated between 2004 and 2013, originally with extra legroom economy seating and business class and from 2008 onward all business class seating.
Singapore no longer operates non-stop service to the US. Non-stop flights, though, can now make sense thanks to both more fuel efficient aircraft capable of flying long distances and lower fuel costs. Flying great distances is especially costly when oil prices are high, since they have to carry extra fuel just to fly all the fuel needed for such a long journey.
And that’s just what Singapore Airlines intends to do.
Delta business class saver awards between the US and Israel were 70,000 miles each way. Effective November 1, those same saver awards go up to 85,000 miles each way. That’s an increase of 30,000 miles roundtrip. Delta snuck this one in, without any advance warning to members and indeed without telling members at all.
Two months ago Delta made changes to the price of several international awards for travel October 1 onward. You’d think one devaluation in the first quarter of 2016 would be enough for the SkyMiles program, but that would be wrong.
Last year Hyatt launched Hyatt Centric as a new brand to join Regency, Grand, Andaz, House, Place, and Park as well as all-inclusives Zilara and Ziva — and now they’re bringing on another brand as well: unbound collection.
This is really an “un-brand” along the lines of Starwood’s Tribute Portfolio and Marriott’s Autograph Collection which has been under consideration for some time.
Erin Andrews is in the midst of her lawsuit against the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University where she was taped through the peephole in her door. Apparently this video of her was viewed 17 million times.
Andrews contends that the man – who was convicted of felony stalking and who was sentenced to 30 months in prison — alleges that employees at the hotel property revealed she was a registered guest at their hotel, gave the stalker her room number, and at his request assigned him the room next to hers.
Hotels really shouldn’t tell strangers what room you’re in, of course, though ultimately one of the biggest threats to security is social engineering, and that’s a tough problem to crack.
In testimony during her lawsuit seeking $75 million in damages she detailed her new hotel security routine.
Marriott is buying Starwood. The deal is expected to close in June. t has now cleared anti-trust hurdles in both the US and Canada.
Two narratives coming from folks at Starwood may give positive indications of things to come in both the short and the long term.
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.
There’s been a pretty silly story making the rounds about how a “man weighing 175 pounds says he was forcibly removed from a flight because he weighed too much.”
In fact, denying boarding because a passenger is overweight isn’t actually a thing.
A baggage handler planted cocaine in a Delta passenger’s luggage. The drugs were found at customs on arrival in New York. The passenger lost his job at Yankee stadium and spent a night in jail.
He’s now won a judgment against Delta for $759,000 but Delta is appealing.
The busiest airline routes are short haul routes. In the US that’s Chicago – New York and Los Angeles – San Francisco, though neither of those break into the world’s top 10.
Worldwide the most passengers each year travel between Seoul and Jeju, Tokyo and Fukuoka, and Sydney and Melbourne. By seat capacity Japanese domestic route Sapporo – Tokyo slides into the number two slot.
For long distance routes, based on capacity, these are the 10 biggest routes:
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 »
