According to a laughable AOL article you should call a hotel directly to secure the best price and use a three word incantation to save 20% off of the lowest price online.
However there’s a nugget of wisdom here that’s worth unpacking.
You’d never expect a U.S. airport to be nominated for the country’s best public restroom. At Dallas Fort-Worth, for instance, when they renovated the A terminal they didn’t even refresh the bathrooms and when they re-do terminal C they’ve scaled back the budget so there’s no money to do the restrooms there, either.
However a new restroom in Seattle’s North Satellite terminal is a finalist for American’s best. And so is a restroom in the refreshed New York LaGuardia Terminal B. Say what?
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 Halliburton employee has been charged with “video voyeurism within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” How he was caught is incredible. He inadvertently taped himself installing the recording device in the lavatory. United “watched the footage and saw a man installing the device in the bathroom in first class on that same flight.” That’s pretty good evidence.
I’m often tired when I travel. Doing some exercises before bed helps, but between flights, time zone changes, and extremely long work days I find when I’m back home Friday morning that I’m dragging. In fact I can get up dragging while I’m on the road too. Coffee is part of my morning ritual.
But I won’t make coffee in my room.
The best airports are the ones get are easiest to get to and get through. They make your travel more efficient, rather than adding to an already cumbersome and stressful experience. That has little to do with how much high-end retail there is (airports offer expensive shopping for their benefit, not for yours).
That means the best airports are close-in, and once you get there security is near the entrance and gates are near security. There’s enough taxiway space and runway capacity to handle flights, too, minimizing delays.
Christopher Elliott bends himself into a pretzel to support whatever new narrative produces a pro-consumer, anti-business, populist column. He used to argue that coach passengers were subsidizing first class. He used to argue that loyalty programs are bad for you and should be avoided and also that the existence of first class was an affront to democracy.
Elliott seems to forget which direction traffic flowed over the Berlin Wall, and indeed not to realize that even North Korea’s Air Koryo and Cuba’s Cubana de Aviacion offer business class.
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.
If breakfast matters to you remember that IHG doesn’t promise it; Hilton offers just a continental breakfast but doesn’t exclude brands; Marriott’s breakfast benefit is improved but understanding it is like something out of a Fellini film; while Hyatt’s offerings are both more robust and more clear.
A requirement to avoid Chinese airspace for Cathay Pacific would add time and fuel expense to flights. The airline might choose to exert pressure on employees not to protest and even express support for protests in social media or be penalized by being unable to work.
Meanwhile Chinese media is reporting on state-owned enterprises instructing employees not to fly Cathay Pacific when other airline flights are available.
This is an attack on Cathay Pacific. It’s also an effort to leverage Cathay Pacific’s influence over its employees. And it’s a demonstration of the ability of mainland China to punish Hong Kong companies and workers for defiance.
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 »
