How Marriott Award Availability Restrictions Actually Work

by Gary Leff

fancy hotel
Mar 08 2019

arriott is no worse than it used to be, except for IT issues that seem to be gradually getting sorted but remain frustrating. Starwood properties are mostly the same, although with lower points redemption prices at the best properties come more restrictions on availability.

Eventually we should see improvements in Marriott availability, compared to what we have seen in the past, starting next year with fewer ‘high demand dates’ at some hotels. Perhaps Flueck’s commitment that we’ll reach the Starwood model of availability for legacy Marriott will come to pass in the future as well.

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What Kind of Bills You Can Pay With Credit Cards to Earn Miles Using Plastiq

by Gary Leff

Mar 08 2019

Plastiq.com is a service that will charge your credit card and mail checks on your behalf. (With some vendors they also make electronic ACH payments.) Their usual fee for this is 2.5%. It’s worth it to incur that fee if you’re earning a signup bonus with the credit card charges, or you’re meeting a spending threshold for a bonus. However I generally advise that it’s not worth it for the ongoing miles without a spending bonus. You don’t want to incur a 2.5% fee to earn 1 mile, you’re buying that mile at 2.5 cents. No mile is worth that. This may be totally obvious but for business spending companies can generally write off the fee. If you’re paying business bills via Plastiq.com your net cost is 2.5% minus (2.5% * your marginal tax rate).…

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Airbnb Acquires HotelTonight, What’s the Difference Between Homesharing and Hotels Anymore?

by Gary Leff

airbnb mobile
Mar 07 2019

Major hotels chains have been in and out of experimenting with homesharing products, even as they engage in dirty tricks to get the practice banned in some jurisdictions. Online travel agency sites have expanded their product suite by offering access to homesharing, and not just traditional hotel rooms. And now Airbnb itself has acquired online hotel booking company HotelTonight. Airbnb said it plans to acquire HotelTonight, a service that offers last-minute hotel bookings, in a deal that will expand the online room rental company’s offerings with traditional and boutique hotel listings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition values HotelTonight in the range of its last private valuation, $465 million, said two people who were briefed on the deal and were not authorized to publicly disclose the price. That would make it Airbnb’s…

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Breaking: 14 American Airlines Oasis Interior 737s Have Been Grounded Due to Faulty Work

by Gary Leff

Mar 07 2019

I’ve been a huge critic of the American Airlines “Project Oasis” to take their existing Boeing 737s and replace interiors with more seats; less comfortable seats; less distance between seats; less recline; no seat back video; and smaller lavatories (plus bigger overhead bins).

However it seems there’s now a whole new problem with this project.

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Airport Fight — This Time It’s Employees Throwing Down

by Gary Leff

Mar 07 2019

In this crazy video two employees are fighting. We don’t know when the video was taken, although it was posted to Facebook yesterday. It’s happening in the Caribbean — I think St. Croix, though I haven’t been since a US Airways mistake fare brought me in 2007 — and one of the employees is wearing an American Airlines vest.

We can only speculate what started the fight — but usually it’s passengers that are melting down. Right now though flight attendants (who are just entering contract negotiations) and mechanics (who haven’t yet gotten a new contract from the merged airline) seem to hate American. That apparently leaves other employees and contractors to hate each other.

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Starting April 1 United Flight Attendants Will Be Allowed to Show Personality During Announcements

by Gary Leff

Mar 07 2019

Southwest Airlines is known for the personality of its flight attendants, and the way they lyricize their safety briefing often goes viral in social media. It really shows their corporate culture of fun.

United’s flight attendants will be permitted to show their personality when making in-flight announcements starting April 1.

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