First class upgrades are tougher than ever, but there’s real advice on how to get them. You can take the Wee Willie Keeler approach which is a very good one. You can hope for an operational upgrade.
There are also upgrade tips that make you look like an idiot.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker explained a year and a half ago that executive bonuses were determined by their ability to hit these profit figures, earning partial bonuses at $3 billion, and more at the $5 billion and $7 billion levels.
So what happened to executive bonuses when the airline failed to meet this goal for 2018? No one received bonuses, just as the CEO promised. Executives received bonuses.
I think that Marriott has done a better job with their program than many give them credit for. Marriott Rewards never offered suite upgrades. They’ve increased the number of brands that have a breakfast benefit. Since the Starwood merger late checkout became a guarantee. And they’ve introduced 24 hour check-in and Ambassador services at the top end of the program.
At the same time they’ve had incredible challenges over the past year. There are still IT challenges, even booking rooms at times at Marriott.com. There are huge challenges getting a sprawling network of 7000 hotels to consistently deliver on points and benefits promised by the program.
In the fall I walked through American Airlines financials to show that the airline is losing money flying but earning an overall profit thanks to selling frequent flyer miles to banks.
That remained the case for the last quarter and full year of 2018.
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.
Hilton’s current promotion, great for short stays ends May 5. Not missing a beat their new promotion runs May 6 – September 8. Hilton is continuing the theme of their most common bonus, double points, but they aren’t interested in bonusing only occasional guests. They’re only offering double points starting with your second stay during the promotion period.
Doubling down, as it were, on the focus on bonusing the most frequent guests they’re adding a component to double points…
The TSA’s latest screening system, part of their ‘Future Lane Experience’ turns out to show images that are way too revealing. What these documents reveal is that the TSA “nude-o-scope” is back.
In the American Airlines internal podcast Kurt Stache, American’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Loyalty talked about the airline’s new Airbus A321neo, on board entertainment, the airline’s new mission, and getting customers to want to recommend the airline.
He’s a legacy American Airlines executive who once ran the AAdvantage program, and AAdvantage reports up to him.
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.
In our post-9/11 world airlines have quickly turned customer service problems into law enforcement problems. A customer creating a “disturbance” might really be creating a “distraction” for bad people to do bad things. It doesn’t matter how unlikely this is, especially prior to departure while still on the ground. The culture of precaution and ‘not being too careful’ has granted huge deference to the judgments flight crews make in the instant. And it’s allowed prejudice and ego to trump good sense.
How many times have we seen a passenger act concerned with a flight attendant moving their carry on bag in the overhead, and being asked in response, “Are we going to have a problem?”
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 »
