When Starwood picked up Le Meridien hotels they integrated most properties into Starwood Preferred Guest but the Parker Meridien properties in New York and Palm Springs were noticeably absent (presumably not wanting to pay the 5% fee).
During the depths of the Great Recession though they realized they needed the marketing muscle and joined the program in late 2008. They allegedly began stealing from Starwood Preferred Guest almost immediately.
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.
Two weeks ago I reported that American would launch award redemption for premium economy this month. Awards go live tomorrow (Thursday, January 24).
We will not see any change to upgrades at this time, or upgrade awards for premium economy. This new redemption option will be for American miles on American flights only — they will not enable redemption of premium economy seats on partners, and American’s partners won’t have access to premium economy awards either.
On Tuesday Representative Rodney Davis (R-IL) was confronted by a passenger on a Chicago – DC flight over his flying in first class during the government shutdown.
The issue here is that it may look unseemly for a member of Congress to appear to be ‘living well’ (how much of the country sees domestic first class) during the government shutdown. Indeed it’s popular to suggest that Members of Congress shouldn’t be paid while the government is shut down. I disagree.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson comes off as out of touch with his customers’ concerns when he claims frustrations with their loyalty program are just ‘noise around the edges’ but that hardly seems to be a one-off example.
He gave a rather bizarre interview to CNBC at the Davos World Economic Forum where he floated the idea of recession being a good thing ‘to get it over with’ and suggested that Marriott was storing the customer passport numbers that were hacked to help customers.
She was attempting to fly from London Gatwick to Dublin aboard Aer Lingus flight EI233 on Monday. She says an airline employee was starting at her, but the employee complained to the captain claiming Banks made threats.
Ultimately she says being “singled out by the haggard old white ladies” keeps happening to her — she was caught on video melting down after a Delta flight in 2015 – because of “the long weave and the Louboutins” and she stands out.
A flight attendant has decided to be a toilet paper roll racing team of one as he walks up the aisle.
At least I’m going to assume that the flight attendant did this willingly and wasn’t the victim of a joke by other members of the crew. Passengers, definitely don’t try this inflight because you don’t know how your crewmember will take it, and you could find law enforcement waiting for you when you land (if they can figure out who the perpetrator was among a plane full of passengers).
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.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson trash talked Indian hotel chains at Arabian Business in Dubai, suggesting that they might as well just stay niche players in India — they’ll never compete with Marriott.
Sorenson believes there’s no room for competitors now because of Marriott’s wide array of brands and loyalty program (“choice of price points, design sensibilities, and programmes”). He may overestimate their position, though.
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.
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 »
