Major hotels chains have been in and out of experimenting with homesharing products, even as they engage in dirty tricks to get the practice banned in some jurisdictions. Online travel agency sites have expanded their product suite by offering access to homesharing, and not just traditional hotel rooms. And now Airbnb itself has acquired online hotel booking company HotelTonight. Airbnb said it plans to acquire HotelTonight, a service that offers last-minute hotel bookings, in a deal that will expand the online room rental company’s offerings with traditional and boutique hotel listings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition values HotelTonight in the range of its last private valuation, $465 million, said two people who were briefed on the deal and were not authorized to publicly disclose the price. That would make it Airbnb’s…
Watch Out: Delta Now Gives You Basic Economy When You Redeem Miles on Many Routes
In December I wrote that Delta has added basic economy restrictions to the lowest award prices for some routes. This was limited to just a few cities.
Now the travesty has spread.
Breaking: 14 American Airlines Oasis Interior 737s Have Been Grounded Due to Faulty Work
I’ve been a huge critic of the American Airlines “Project Oasis” to take their existing Boeing 737s and replace interiors with more seats; less comfortable seats; less distance between seats; less recline; no seat back video; and smaller lavatories (plus bigger overhead bins).
However it seems there’s now a whole new problem with this project.
Airport Fight — This Time It’s Employees Throwing Down
In this crazy video two employees are fighting. We don’t know when the video was taken, although it was posted to Facebook yesterday. It’s happening in the Caribbean — I think St. Croix, though I haven’t been since a US Airways mistake fare brought me in 2007 — and one of the employees is wearing an American Airlines vest.
We can only speculate what started the fight — but usually it’s passengers that are melting down. Right now though flight attendants (who are just entering contract negotiations) and mechanics (who haven’t yet gotten a new contract from the merged airline) seem to hate American. That apparently leaves other employees and contractors to hate each other.
Starting April 1 United Flight Attendants Will Be Allowed to Show Personality During Announcements
Southwest Airlines is known for the personality of its flight attendants, and the way they lyricize their safety briefing often goes viral in social media. It really shows their corporate culture of fun.
United’s flight attendants will be permitted to show their personality when making in-flight announcements starting April 1.
When T-Mobile Announced Their Merger With Sprint Executives Started Staying at the Trump Hotel DC
T-Mobile and Sprint executives didn’t stay much at the Trump Hotel in DC before they announced the merger but as soon as the deal was announced their spending ramped up to 14% of their total DC hotel spend.
New American Airlines Challenge May Let You Earn Seat Coupons and Should DFW Airport Be Sold?
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.
Arlington, Virginia Will Tax Visitors and Give the Money to Amazon
Amazon decided to split up its proposed “HQ2” facility between New York and Northern Virginia, promising about 25,000 jobs for each. New York politicians chased Amazon out of their New York plan.
The payments that Amazon will get for their Northern Virginia headquarters (in addition to tax reductions) are many and varied, coming from all levels of government. Arlington, Virginia will direct a portion of its hotel tax to Amazon.
What American Tells Its Employees About Losing Money Flying Planes, Only Profit From Sale of Miles
American Airlines seemingly spends an awful lot of time talking to employees about my blog posts whether it’s Vasu Raja responding to what I write about New York JFK or Doug Parker getting defensive about the 737 MAX.
The airline is clear in its financials though that they lose money flying planes and all their profit is accounted for by the sale of frequent flyer miles. American is telling their employees not to worry though despite the way “some online commenters have tried to oversimplify” the airline’s financial results.
Qatar Airways Preparing to Announce If They’ll Leave oneworld
In October Qatar Airways threatened to leave the oneworld alliance, a threat that their CEO Akbar al-Baker has repeated several times.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker was asked about his plans to stay or leave oneworld and he’s indicated that they’ll announce a decision in a month or two.