Bibles have been in hotel rooms for over 100 years, dating back at least to 1908 at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. The Gideons, which was formed by two men sharing a hotel room in 1898, give them away for free.
The average life of a hotel room bible is six years. Guests take them, even though they say ‘thou shalt not steal’ inside.
You can fly Delta premium economy on their new Airbus A350 starting at under $750 roundtrip to Asia.
More often than not coach is more expensive than this and premium economy is similar to flying an upgraded domestic first class — much more room and personal space than flying in back.
Since announcing the new Marriott program in April there’s been inconsistent information about breakfast, about lounge access, and about redemptions for Starwood properties that previously charged double points compared to the standard award chart.
They haven’t been ready for prime time for instance they haven’t shared what would happen with travel packages redeemed prior to the start of the new program but where award certificates hadn’t yet been used for a reservation. And they hadn’t even published the terms and conditions for the new program. They don’t plan to share those things until the program launch on August 18.
Existing travel packages have been an outstanding questions. Members who redeem for a travel package, transfer points to miles, and hold onto the hotel stay certificate to use later have wondered ‘since Marriott’s award charts are changing, and my certificates are for a specific redemption category, what’s going to happen? what hotels will I be able to use them for?’
Marriott is sharing that travel packages are going to be adjusted so that they will be used on ‘similarly valued’ hotel categories.
On July 20 at the Savannah-Hilton Head airport the battery of an e-cigarette malfunctioned. TSA has just released video of the incident, because this happened, no one was hurt, and they didn’t even shut down the airport.
You can see the bag smoking once it’s gone through the x-ray. Initially the TSA screener saunters over, picks up the bag, and walks off. You can then see him on another camera speeding up.
Last night a ground worker stole a Bombardier Q400 at Seattle Tacoma airport belonging to Alaska Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Horizon Air. While much of the initial reporting suggested the plane was stolen by a mechanic, it was a 29 year old Horizon Air ground service agent.
The plane (N449QX) was taken from maintenance around 8 p.m. local time in Seattle and crashed on Ketron Island about an hour later.
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.
Marriott is launching a new program August 18th which will be the same for all of Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Ritz-Carlton Rewards.
Accessing frequent guest accounts, and even making reservations, is expected to be offline most of that day. In addition Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards accounts may be unavailable during overnight hours between now and the 18th. These overnight outages shouldn’t affect Starwood accounts.
Starting August 18th though you won’t be able to use previous travel package redemptions for a month.
A Brazilian court heard an appeal in a case where a member sold miles, American Airlines caught it, and they voided the tickets. The appeals court is requiring American to pay the cost of replacement tickets plus damages.
A 44 year old woman and mother of three arrived in Dubai off an Emirates flight on July 13. She learned her single entry visa, already used, was not valid for re-entry into the UAE.
It’s not clear why the woman wasn’t eligible for a new visa on arrival, however even if she was apparently the exchange became testy. She was with her four year old. She was asked whether she had been drinking (she was tested and came up 0.04. She acknowledged drinking a glass of wine on her Emirates flight.
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 »
