Last week American Express added Qantas Frequent Flyer as a Membership Rewards transfer partner.
Normally points transfer 1:1 from American Express to Qantas in 500 point increments. However through June 30 they’re offering a 20% bonus on transfers from American Express to Qantas.
Up until June 2014 you could transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to whomever you wish. At that time they instituted new restrictions without warning: they would only allow transfers of your points to people who have an authorized user card on your account.
That was always the rule but the website never enforced it up until that time. You could link anyone’s frequent flyer account to your Membership Rewards account and transfer points to it. Now there’s a new rule or rather a waiting period to transfer points to someone else’s account.
Knowing how to find the old system makes award search much more convenient, even as American pushes customers into the process for the new and incomplete award search tool.
It’s unclear how long American will run two systems in parallel. However for now it’s a good idea to make sure you’re seeing results from both systems because otherwise you may pay more miles than necessary for your awards.
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.
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.
Delta has introduced new Tumi amenity kits, and the business class kits contain Le Labo products. Perhaps most notably all long haul passengers flying Delta receive an amenity kit, including coach passengers, although the separate kits for coach and Comfort+ extra legroom seats aren’t branded… but are still creative.
The US government is ending ‘people-to-people educational travel’ to Cuba for US citizens. If you purchased a flight or reserved a hotel prior to June 5th, though, you can still travel. The regulations will not publish in the Federal Register until June 5. That means you still have today to make bookings.
The lounge is after security and passport control, so it’s unlikely she’d have been stopped prior to her flight. However if she was thinking at all clearly she may have been worried about holding onto the cocaine while heading through immigration formalities at the Dubai airport.
So this woman traveling solo decided to swallow $75 worth of cocaine while drinking champagne in the Priority Pass-accessible Aspire Lounge at the Manchester airport.
Swapping which carrier in the revenue-sharing joint venture operates which route could both match capacity to market and better optimize schedules for customer demand. One theoretical option to do this was having American operate out of Washington Dulles.
That was the rumor a year ago. However sources at American Airlines tell me that is now off the table.
Hilton Hotels CEO Christopher Nassetta told Andrew Ross Sorkin during a panel for the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference that he does not tip hotel housekeepers. He said “I typically do not leave a tip.”
The truth is that tipping is a terrible way to pay housekeepers. And the more guests tip, the less hotels have to pay to attract workers.
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 »
