Each of the three major credit reporting agencies are obligated to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once a year. This has been phased in, with the East Coast not scheduled to go live at annualcreditreport.com until September 1. It’s live a few days early. Unless you’re buying a house or doing major credit repair work — in other words, if you’re just monitoring — the best strategy is to request one report each every 4 months rather than requesting all 3 at once. Details are available from the Federal Trade Commission.
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Category Archives for Uncategorized.
Diners Club.. the choice for CIA covert ops
The nineteen alleged CIA offers with arrest warrants in Italy apparently prefer Diners Club for charging up the high life. Still, what seemed most striking about the group was not their names but their credit cards, on which they charged over $150,000 for fancy meals and rooms at some of Milan’s finest ristoranti and hotels. Among them, the U.S. spies held a total of 10 Visa cards (no surprise there) but no MasterCards and, strangely, six Diners Club cards. Although Diners Club boasts of being the original charge card (its debut, with much fanfare, was way back in 1950), the ailing brand now claims less than 1 percent of the U.S. market. So why do the CIA’ s spooks prefer Diners Club? Do they get bonus points? Free eavesdropping gear? The CIA and Diners Club…
Why not hire two caterers?
One area of aviation that I’m not too familiar with is the process of airline catering. In light of the catering strike at Heathrow that crippled British Airways, Lynne Kiesling asks why airlines don’t hire multiple caterers. If the pricing/reliability benefits outweigh the economies of scale, they should be willing to hire different caterers. They can have them specialize in different terminals, or hire one caterer to do meals for flights to Asia, one for Middle East, one for Europe and US, etc. Then, even if you are still facing a duopoly, at least you contract with both of them and you increase your probability of getting a Bertrand outcome. Either I’m missing something, or they’re not thinking very strategically. Which is it? Maybe someone who knows more about airline catering than I do can…
Can e-mail help a city retain air service?
Will Hickory, North Carolina’s airport go the way of MidAmerica Airport, St. Louis’ supposed second airport? Not if the Hickory City Council has their way, they’re starting up an email campaign and visiting businesses trying to get them to use their local airport. Delta’s regional partner Atlantic Southeast services Hickory and load factors have hovered around just 40%. Delta is considering pulling service. The City Council thinks people just need to realize how great the airport is — free parking, short checkin lines, and close to home for Hickory residents. Sure it’s a little more expensive, but generally not more than $100 than flying out of Charlotte. Residents just need to understand the benefits of their home airport, of course, so the city is going to try a metaphorical “grand re-opening.” [Sarcasm]Naturally, it’s the consumers…
Poste at the Hotel Monaco: Zen and the Art of Bad Service
Great service is anticipatory, your needs are met before you realize you have them so that a dining experience seems effortless with staff unobtrusive. Furthermore, good service means accomodating guests’ preferences and requests rather than sticking to and enforcing the restaurant’s routines on patrons. The best example I can think of for this is the Inn at Little Washington. Customers often report not even having to identify themselves by name upon entering, somehow the restaurant knows who you are (easy to do if expecting a few guests at a particular time, and you know that there are several 50 year anniversaries, you deduce the names of the 30-year old couple from among those not celebrating an anniversary). But once you identify yourselves there, everyone in the restaurant knows who you are. The Inn provides all…
Yours is a very bad hotel
Four years ago bad hotel stays got spread via email (such as this famous complaint). Now they’re posted at TripAdvisor and on Flyertalk for millions to read. And people post them on their blogs, which are nicely indexed by Google, so that a search for the airport Holiday Inn in Buffalo would likely yield this entry. A power outage, bad beds, rude staff, and a failure of the pillow man to deliver pillows is just the start. Jeneane Sessum should really just say Yours is a very bad hotel. I have a feeling that anyone doing due diligence online before booking the airport Holiday Inn in Buffalo will have second thoughts. By way of contrast, while I sympathize with this review of the Crowne Plaza Rochester (and wouldn’t want to stay there!), the Buffalo review…
More signs of the apocalypse
When all the Hampton Inns in Manhattan price over $300, the end times are near.
Using State Power for Personal Gain… and Miles
As posted on Flyertalk, Thailand’s Members of Parliament fly free domestically and earn miles for doing so. Thai Airways tried to stop awarding miles on these free tickets, and got called to the carpet. Furthermore, He said the House committee also asked THAI to allow MPs to fly business class instead of economy class. Phaichit said the House panel would also ask the Finance Ministry to consider allowing MPs to fly international flights for free on both THAI and other airlines. As Mel Brooks would say, “It’s good to be the king.”
So I didn’t actually get any travel tips, but…
Via HotelChatter, Tara Reid really digs the Hotel Grande Bretagne. Tara’s description of the property? Absolutely incredible. This hotel’s on my list, probably for summer 2006 on the way to Crete or Sardinia.
Black Card Bling
Book an escort with your American Express Centurion card and get an extra day free.
