Ultimately a consumer-focused website simply cannot claim that devaluations benefit program members. Marriott ‘enhanced‘ the program, perhaps, with ‘changes you’re going to like‘.
But charging members more for reward nights doesn’t improve the program.
When American Airlines management ran US Airways their ticker symbol was ‘LCC’ for low cost carrier. They briefly tried to charge for water. They always seem to be looking for an angle to shave cost. And there are a few new ones coming to inflight catering.
In December I wrote about a woman suing Hilton claiming a hotel employee videotaped her in the shower and used the photos to blackmail her. I’ve written about plenty of cases of video surreptitiously hidden in hotel rooms and also inside of Airbnb accommodations.
Now there’s any case being reported of a paid subcription website where viewers could watch hotel guests being secretly taped in South Korean hotel rooms.
American Airlines purchased a stake in China Southern. The Chinese carrier will be leaving SkyTeam this year.
Several months ago they announced that frequent flyer benefits would be coming. Travel on China Southern now earns American AAdvantage redeemable miles (but elite qualifying miles only in American Airlines codeshares) and AAdvantage miles can be used for award travel on China Southern.
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.
The biggest end of year miles and points news was definitely that Capital One has introduced the ability to transfer their miles to a variety of different airlines.
I’m excited to see that Capital One is running a bonus to transfer their miles to an airline at a better than standard rate. It suggests to me that transfer bonuses are on their radar, so I can’t wait to see whether another transfer bonus comes along soon.
There are several reasons to head to the airport early.
The argument against? A regular weekly traveler spending an extra half our at the airport in each direction will spend 52 extra hours at the airport each year or more than 2 days each year unnecessarily waiting.
Last June Hyatt previewed a plan to offer confirmed early check-in and late check-out at Hyatt Place hotels. This was supposed to launch in ‘early 2019’.
Oddly Hyatt hasn’t announced it as far as I’m aware, but it does seem to be live.
Hilton is going to give your used bar of soap to someone else in the form of ‘recycled’ soap for charity.
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 »
