News and notes from around the interweb:
- When a hacker linked a victim’s British Airways account to their Qatar Airways account to drain the points, the member caught it and unlinked it. Now BA is telling them they cannot link their account to the real Qatar account for 50 years “under no circumstances should you unlink your British Airways account from any of your other airline accounts, even if they are linked to an account controlled by a hacker!”
- New York City tourism suffers from unaffordability, driven in part by the Airbnb ban and giving unions the power to block new hotels. There’s not enough capacity, which drives up room rates.
Zohran Mamdani wants to support tourism. His solution is increasing the city’s tourism budget. He supports the Airbnb ban. (Skift)
- SIA stewardess helped elderly passenger who soiled herself, wins service excellence award
- Wyndham Rewards will no longer be able to book Vacasa properties after November 30, with stays only through January 31, 2026 (though existing bookings past that date are supposed to be honored).
- Marriott muses about opening airport lounges. I don’t see it, unless they can get their credit card partners to pay for it (if it drives card adoption and spend). Marriott wouldn’t do this just for elites, though they might invite Ambassador members once they build it for card. They’re just not in the business of building customer loyalty. Their model is to monetize an existing brand, and never seem to really feed the brand.
Rafat Ali, Founder and CEO of Skift, asked Capuano whether Marriott had ever considered entering the airport lounge business.
“I had my senior leadership strategy retreat this summer, and it was one of the topics that came up as really interesting,” Capuano said. “It’s an intriguing thing.”
The company is evaluating whether to pursue lounges independently or partner with credit card companies.
One hesitation concerns execution. He acknowledged that lounge overcrowding is a problem at many gateway airports and that it diminishes the value.
- Air Canada is taking over the Plaza Premium lounge space in Toronto and using it to double the size of the Signature Suite there. During peak transatlantic departure times this is sorely needed.
- Marriott to lay off a portion of its customer service staff “Marriott is providing too much customer service” said no one, ever.
Gary… hope all’s well in Austin, but, oh please… NYC is booming; so, if you can’t afford to stay in the city, just commute-in for day-trips, like the folks in Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester do. Also, our unions are doing well, too, so need for you or anyone to scapegoat our hardworking people, either. And, as far as our future mayor is concerned, I think Mamdani or Cuomo would make ‘fine’ mayors, though neither are perfect, and people do have their preferences. We’ll see.
I’m undecided. I know Madmani will fqqck up NYC, the cesspool of America. That makes me happy, as smart people will move against it. But, do I want NYC to commit suicide? The one good thing is the high-volume, zero content potester here will have to see their view of the world implode from mama’s basement.
@1990: To say Mamdani would make a good mayor is pushing the boundaries of fiction. Even a novelist would never write that.
@ Common Sense — Mamdani will be an awesome foe to the complete idiot running the country. What are they gonna do, send the US Army in to attempt controling NYC? Probably, but good luck with that. Besides, the Army will be too busy fighting a war with our arch enemy, Nigeria. Seriously??
@1990 your consistent shilling for your unions is starting to be reminiscent of Tim’s shilling for Delta.
@Johhny – Unions are generally a good thing. In countries like ours where the insanely rich regularly abuse the lower and middle classes in the name of capitalism the unions stop being nice-to-have and become a critical need.
If you disagree, please just explain what other mechanisms are both practical and effective at counterbalancing the interests of shareholders and management with those of labor. What else can people do besides forming and utilizing unions to offset corporate greed?
@Johnny — So, what you’re saying is… there’s a chance… you’ll enjoy my schtick on consumer protections, too!
Regarding the BA story, I can’t say I’m surprised. People love to joke about German rigidity, but the British elevate rule enforcement to something approaching religious devotion. Procedure is truly the king of society, unbothered by logic or context. There’s a unique and perverse satisfaction they seem to get from saying, “I’m afraid that’s not permitted,” as if they’ve just personally preserved the integrity of Western civilization. BA in particular is run like a Dickensian orphanage overseen by a committee of hall monitors, all armed with clipboards and the moral authority of a TV license fee collector working double overtime.
The British with their weird rules and weird rules implementation even when it makes no good sense unless the point is to want to try to target the targets of wrongdoing to have a stiff upper lip and kiss the ring. But this is a long-standing British tradition and thus it is no surprise when we get questionable “referees” and moderators like NWIFlyer/Rob on FlyerTalk or this bad BA behavior doing what they do.