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.
We’re just over a month away from when American Airlines will cut over to a single flight attendant scheduling system. They’ll no longer have to keep former US Airways crews separate from legacy American crews. And this will allow the airline to schedule their planes more efficiently — driven more by passenger demand than contractual obligations to different flight attendant groups.
At the same time they’re imposing a new discipline system on flight attendants to ensure they show up for work.
Southwest Airlines is apparently going to vary the price of Early Bird check-in by route instead of charging a flat $15. Some routes will go up to $25 starting August 29th, and this will be based on two things: the length of the route (so how much getting a more desirable seat is likely to matter to you) and demand for Early Bird Check-in on the route (how many people are already buying it).
This isn’t as big a deal as it seems, especially if you know how to play Southwest Airlines boarding strategically.
There is something to standing behind the fares that you offer. There’s something to treating consumers at least on equal footing with large corporations. That’s not how airlines usually behave and when they do they deserve admiration and respect. Today that’s Hong Kong Airlines.
Rocketmiles is one booking site for the toolkit where you earn your preferred currency for your hotel bookings (and frequently a lot of them) and where you can especially earn miles for reservations you make for other people. And the new Membership Rewards partnership is especially useful.
Inflight disturbances frequently involve alcohol. Here’s a Love & Hip Hop star being booted from a Delta flight for coming onboard glass of wine in hand last year.
UK airlines want to regulate airport sales of alcohol. Presumably restrictions on when alcohol can be served in airports would limit airline lounge costs, too.
There’s been discussion on reddit and blogs about whether Korean Air could become an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.
Here’s what American Express had to say.
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.
I continue to worry that airlines really haven’t learned very much — other than to pay more involuntary denied boarding compensation — from last year’s United Airlines David Dao fiasco. Police remain adjunct airline customer service representatives for dealing with unhappy passengers.
I hate non-refundable hotel rates. Even when I think my plans are firm you’d be surprised how often something comes up and plans change. Plus I may want to stay somewhere else even if I”m going to be in the same city. Or rates will drop so I’d rather pocket savings rather than lock myself in.
Several years ago I wrote about tricks for getting out of a non-refundable hotel booking. But there’s something I didn’t know about Hilton reservations.
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 »
