Priceline’s Booking.com, the major competitor to the Expedia group’s behemoth of online travel booking sites, will start charging hotels commission on resort fees.
They believe the shift away from selling consumers a total rate, and moving money into the resort or destination fee bucket, cheats them of revenue. And of course it has reduced commissions that hotels pay.
American Airlines has gone for an injunction against their mechanics’ union, accusing them of a work slowdown leading to “650 flight cancellations and more than 1500 maintenance delays” affecting 125,000 customers, according to a letter sent to employees. They contend that the degree of issues they’ve faced would be “one-in-one billion” if left to chance rather than the result of “concerted activity.”
Delta’s new SkyClub in the Austin airport opens Tuesday morning. It’s gorgeous on the inside, features more substantive food options than the United and American clubs in the same airport, and features an furnished outdoor observation deck area with misters for the summer heat and heat lamps for the few days each year it’s cold.
For an outstation hoping to become a focus city like Austin this new club is an absolute winner — and will be a draw for flying Delta.
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.
Hong Kong’s airport and mass transit refused to display a Cathay Pacific ad which depicts two men walking on the beach holding hands with a slogan ‘move beyond’.
While this highlights continued lack of tolerance for homosexuality in Hong Kong, and backlash as societies undergo transformation, it also signals a broader discomfort in Hong Kong with social movements as Beijing asserts its influence over the increasingly less independent region.
Throwaway ticketing – buying a ticket to a different city than the one you’re actually traveling to in order to save money – is against the rules at most airlines. It’s against the rules, that is, unless you get your ticket issued in Italy with certain airlines, which turns out to be surprisingly easy to do.
It’s a mistake to start with the operation rather than the customer. It’s also a mistake to start with competitors rather than customers. Understand what your customers need, and use that to make decisions around how best to provide that.
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.
Shape magazine wants you to be a terrible airline passenger. They aren’t asking you to take off your socks and clip your toenails while resting your feet on the arm rest of the passenger in front of you. Instead they want you to take up a ton of space in the gate area and stand on the airport’s chairs.
A couple of days ago I wrote about Delta One business class suites to Asia for as little as 47,000 points each way with availability for 4 or more and sometimes even 9 passengers per flight.
Now two transferable points programs are running transfer bonuses to Virgin at the same time. In addition to a 30% bonus transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic through July 1, points transfers from Citi ThankYou Rewards to Virgin Atlantic receive a 30% bonus through June 22.
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 »
