More or less the only dimension along which US airlines compete is fares. Their products are otherwise extremely similar. Delta is a little more reliable. United has a little better mileage program.
But they compete largely on price and not quality. And prices have been falling.
Different hotels and chains take a variety of different views on what it’s alright for guests to ‘steal’ from their rooms.
Hyatt wants you to take their toiletries (but not actually raid the maid cart). On the other hand there are hotels RFID tagging towels to keep you from stealing.
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.
San Juan airport will reopen today to commercial traffic.
However the airport isn’t going to be fully open. According to the FAA the airport is closed to commercial flights from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m. (2100Z to 1100Z) with only military and hurricane relief flights allowed to operate.
Back in the spring the TSA was testing a requirement to make passengers take their books and papers out of their bags for inspection.
The idea of having to present what you’re reading to the government at a checkpoint was… concerning.
The TSA killed the test — or so they said at the time.
Involuntary denied boardings are rare. They’re continuing to become even more rare. And when they happen there are usually volunteers at much lower amounts. Still the airline wants to process them better and cheaper, while they adopted a policy of going up to $10,000 getting to that amount would be a failure.
They also want to be able to sell more seats to people who want them the most.
A huge challenge for businesses with high fixed costs is how to unload spoiling inventory without lowering the price existing customers pay. Airline seats that take off empty generate nothing for the carrier. Hotel beds that go empty on a given night can’t be resold in the future.
Restaurants have empty seats, too the rent is paid for and there’s very little extra staff time at the margin on a given night when an extra customer walks through the door.
Avianca’s LifeMiles is a fantastic frequent flyer program because they give you access to Star Alliance award travel, they don’t add fuel surcharges to any awards, have a reasonable award chart and sell miles super cheap.
In fact the head of the program has described the miles they sell as ‘good miles’ and the miles earned from flying as ‘bad miles’.
Marriott has a job listing for a Vice President, Global Card Program who will oversee 12 card products in 5 countries representing $55 billion in charge volume.
Hurricane Maria is dumping three feet of water on Puerto Rico. It’s taken out much of the power on the island. San Juan International is closed today, hopefully re-opening tomorrow but we’ll learn more soon. That seems optimistic. Other airports are closed too.
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 »
