A former senior loyalty executive with extensive knowledge of United’s MileagePlus program told me that yesterday’s elimination of award charts was “the day United died.”
United has now followed Delta in ending transparent award pricing, leaving American and Alaska as the only major US carriers with award charts.
In January there was much buzz about the Frontier Airlines policy of supplementing flight attendant wages with customer tips.
Most airlines don’t permit flight attendants to accept tips, and they have mixed feelings on the subject — some simply want more money (although tipping may ultimately mean lower salaries), while others worry the emphasis would then shift from safety to service. But what about other agents you encounter at the airport?
American has some of the most complex routing rules of any frequent flyer program. They do not publish those rules publicly. So it’s important to lay out what goes into determining how many miles an award costs, so you know what to expect (and how to save your miles).
You need to know about maximum permitted mileage, the most direct routing rule, and the prohibition on travel between two regions via a third region unless there’s an exception allowing you to do so.
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.
Four years ago Hyatt started testing letting guests use their phone as a room key at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco and the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. Hyatt has been pretty quiet about the technology, though in the fall they did say that all of their properties would have it by 2020.
Yesterday’s United Express flight UA4390 from Knoxville to Houston diverted to Dallas after two screens in the cockpit of the Bombardier CRJ-200 shut down during flight and couldn’t be restarted.
The plane had taken off on time at 7:36 p.m. without indication of an issue. About an hour and a half into the two hour flight passengers were told they’d be diverting. When they landed the captain explained what happened – and the scary story was captured on video.
Airlines don’t like it when you check a bag to a connecting city rather than to your final destination. It turns out though that you can short check bags, it’s just tough. Generally speaking airlines will let you do it on connections of 6-12 hours, and will require you to do it on 12+ hour connections (they don’t want to hold the bag that long).
I was interested to learn the official American Airlines policy for short-checking bags, and unsurprisingly it’s very much linked to hidden city ticketing. The policy was just updated last month,
Now United is following Delta, eliminating award charts. Prices won’t go higher for travel, though, until November 15 and members may see lower prices today.
United is also eliminating close-in booking fees that range $25 – $75 for some members based on elite status for any award travel November 15, 2019 onward.
I know how I’m betting this turns out, based on nearly 20 years watching and studying this space. I’d love, however, to be wrong.
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.
Tyler Cowen’s new book coming out April 9, Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero contains this passage final its chapter “If business is so good, why is it so disliked?”
It’s not about loyalty programs per se, but loyalty marketing is one of the key ways that businesses attempt to trascend the transactional and make us loyal. Brand positioning, charitable giving, along with recognition and reward, can temporarily make us see the business as aligning with our values and integrating with our life. And then we’re disappointed:
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 »
