Hilton Says Honors Engagement is Up: Giving Members Less Works

by Gary Leff

hotel
Jul 30 2019

Two and a half years ago Hilton reported 60 million members. Then at the beginning of 2018 they reported 70 million. Now they say they are up to 94 million Honors members.

Hilton was the first to aggressively advertise ‘member rates’ which are small room discounts that require you to join the loyalty program. Unsurprisingly that’s just what guests do. And since the number of members has gone up recently, driven by this savings, these are ‘engaged’ members with recent Hilton activity.

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AWFUL: IHG Hotels Will Move to Bulk Toiletries Across All 17 Brands

by Gary Leff

soap dispenser bathroom
Jul 30 2019

When you ‘make a green choice’ to let hotels save money on housekeeping, at least they’ll usually give you points so you can share in the savings (but not at the Hyatt Regency Seattle).

Marriott revealed that wall mounted toiletries save a couple thousand dollars per hotel each year. That’s a big savings across all of their managed North American properties who are making the switch from individual bottles.

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Play-By-Play Inside the Oval Office Meeting With Airline CEOs That Delta Skipped

by Gary Leff

Akbar al Baker meeting Trumps
Jul 29 2019

The meeting lasted an hour, during which “there was a lot of yelling.” I think my favorite part has to be that “the president ribbed American Airlines CEO Doug Parker over his company’s flagging stock price, asking why it’s so low at a time when the stock market is surging.”

In the end American, Delta, and United were told by the President to follow the legal process they’ve so far in their 4 year saga been unwilling to follow, knowing that their case would fail on the merits at the Department of Transportation.

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Delta Adds Seat Back Entertainment to 700 Aircraft, Launching Hulu Original Content Onboard

by Gary Leff

delta seat back life
Jul 29 2019

Last August Delta announced they had seat back video installed in 600 aircraft. That’s significant because American has been looking to ultimately remove seat back screens from domestic planes and United, led by American’s former President, has a similar vision.

Now Delta has announced they’ve hit 700 planes with seat back video.

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Perfect for Hot Flights on Asian Airlines, Sony is Developing Wearable Air Conditioning

by Gary Leff

reon pocket
Jul 29 2019

One of the great mysteries of life — along with why, if 7-11s are open 24 hours a day, they still have locks on their doors — is why some airlines keep their cabins so warm. Asian airlines, in particular, are known for keeping the cabins like sweat boxes during flight.

Fortunately one of the most brilliant ideas may be about to come to fruition.

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Have Mergers Created Monopoly Power in the Airline Industry?

by Gary Leff

inside plane
Jul 29 2019

While there’s certainly been consolidation in the airline industry as America West acquired US Airways and then American; Delta acquired Northwest; Continental acquired United; Southwest acquired AirTran and Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America this hasn’t led to higher prices for consumers. Government should remove barriers to competition, but it’s a stretch to suggest that the several large airlines in today’s industry constitute anything close to monopoly.

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