Marriott Travel Packages Finally Have a Use Case With Peak Season Awards

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Aug 15 2019

Marriott travel packages used to be the best value in the program, combining hotel stays with airline miles transfers. The new program gutted the value of Marriott travel packages. It seems though that this may have been in anticipation of peak season award pricing which is another step towards Marriott’s cost containment efforts, and driving the program towards delivering consistent average value on each stay rather than having peaks and valleys (which create opportunity for exceptional value). Bonvoy confirms to me that Marriott travel packages do not have restrictions on use during peak nights. Marriott reward night certificates can be used for their permitted category whether the standard room redemption is for off season, standard or peak season. As a result you get the most value during peak season. There’s a whole lot more value…

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Amazing: Business Class From Several US Cities to Italy $1344+

by Gary Leff

coliseum
Aug 15 2019

SkyTeam airlines including Delta and Alitalia have business class roundtrips to Italy on sale from $1344. You can depart from several US cities — such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, and Miami – and travel to places including Rome, Milan or Venice.

There may be more cities bookable using this deal, but act fast because this is an amazing fare for travel over holidays that won’t last.

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Incredible Video: Airbus A321 With 226 Passengers Lands in a Field, No Serious Injuries

by Gary Leff

plane in corn field
Aug 15 2019

It was like US Airways flight 1549 – the Miracle on the Hudson – but in a field. A Ural Airlines Airbus A321 suffered a serious bird strike on takeoff from Moscow Zhukovsky airport. The flight was headed to Simferopol in the Ukraine and had 226 passengers and 7 crew on board.

The crew of the Ural Airlines aircraft did a truly heroic job landing their aircraft, wheels up in a field, keeping the fuselage intact. And fortunately there did not appear to be fuel leaking from the engines. Walking away from this is really special.

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Marriott Rolls Out High/Low Season Award Pricing Next Month Along With Other Changes

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Aug 15 2019

When Marriott first announced their new program they told us they’d be adding a new highest redemption category 8 and also adding peak and off peak pricing for 2019. They put off category 8 until March but postponed peak and off peak pricing even further.

They’ve been silent on when to expect it until now, giving us a month’s notice before the new top redemption price could go as high as 100,000 points per night. Effective September 14th they’re making some other changes to the program as well.

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United Will Put Seat Back Video Screens on Some New 737s, Could Force American to Do the Same

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 14 2019

Delta continues to double down on passenger entertainment not just for international flights but across its domestic fleet. They’re now over 700 aircraft offering seat back entertainment screens.

United and American have been moving in the opposite direction. They have eschewed screens to save money – about a million dollars per aircraft – offering streaming content that customers can view on their own devices. In most cases this means passengers watching movies on phones.

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Standing With the Protesters in Hong Kong

by Gary Leff

philips center
Aug 14 2019

Tell me you can watch Hong Kong airport protesters since “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Miserables without crying. The song, by the way, is banned in China.

It’s not clear what the U.S. can do, or any of us can beyond paying attention, outside intervention could just as easily play into Chinese hands dismissing and minimizing the moment as some sort of external plot, delegitimizing the grassroots nature of the protests.

We may not be able to do very much, but we have our sympathy to offer and we can be inspired by what people will risk for freedom and not be so cavalier about giving away our own.

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Airline Drops Wheelchair Passenger at the Wrong Gate, Makes Her Buy New Ticket After Missing Flight

by Gary Leff

plane on runway
Aug 14 2019

Norwegian is cheap flying, but when things go wrong it isn’t known for great customer service. Mistakes happen, but the test of an airline is how they respond when they do.

When they delivered an 82 year old woman in a wheelchair to the wrong gate she missed her flight. And they told her she’d have to buy a new ticket as a no show passenger.

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