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.
Hyatt has started offering different benefits or state levels every 10 nights stayed instead of attaching benefits to qualifying for elite status.
Club lounge access awards are given after 20 and 30 nights stayed to all members. That means top tier Globalists earn them even though club lounge access is a benefit of Globalist status.
Imagine my shock that Thomas Cook Airlines claims to have an (unpublished) policy against ‘inappropriate’ dress and that it was enforced against Emily O’Connor as she boarded her flight to Tenerife, a holiday destination in the Canary Islands.
Southwest Airlines of course famously kicked 23 year old Kyla Ebbert off a flight over her short skirt, which struck me as ironic considering the original Southwest Airlines uniform.
American Airlines hosts a ‘state of the airline’ event for employees after its earnings calls. There senior management shares their vision for the company and employees can ask questions. In addition to those questions that are asked live, there are followup questions that get asked – and answered – in writing.
The airline has shared written responses to several employee questions, and some of those were interesting (to me).
North Island, one of the world’s top private island resorts in the Seychelles, announced it was joining Marriott’s The Luxury Collection. There are only 11 rooms (starting at 5000 square feet) and rates can hover above $7000 a night.
I’ve just learned that the property will participate in Marriott Bonvoy.
Sixteen women headed out Thursday on American Airlines from Sacramento to a bachelorette party in Cabo San Lucas while first connecting in Phoenix.
As they were about to board their connecting flight they were stopped — the bride‘s mother appeared to be intoxicated. Her daughter excuses it because she was nervous flying for the first time “in over 20 years” which is why she “had a few alcoholic drinks before their first flight.”
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.
As American took the first 14 of their 24 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft out of service following President Trump’s grounding, planes were left sitting in Barbados, Cancun, Boston, Orlando, St. Croix, Tampa, Santo Domingo, Port of Spain, Santo Domingo, Miami and Puerto Plata.
The first 36 MAX flight cancellations affected schedules of 5500 passengers. Roughly speaking we’ll be looking at perhaps twice that many flights on an average day.
I’ve just written that I believe the FAA was reasonable not to ground the Boeing 737 MAX, and that doing so brings along its own safety risks. I wrote that I hoped that new data would be what guides any shift in position.
Minutes after writing that, though, President Trump announced a grounding of the aircraft type. It’s not obvious that there’s been any actual new information which has become available since the FAA resisting doing so. The only meaningful news item has been Canada’s decision to ground the plane, also based on no new material information.
I do generally trust the FAA, and the pilots operating these aircraft, to offer their best judgment here. Standing athwart regulators the world over who are taking the simple path (they’ll never get blamed for a car crash or incident on another aircraft type) isn’t easy.
I just hope that new data would be what guides any shift in position.
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 »
