In 2010 a traffic jam in China lasted for two weeks and stretched 60 miles. There were drivers stuck in the jam for five days, with some cars moving no more than a single kilometer per day.
Perhaps the closest we come to that in the U.S. was Wednesday night at Atlanta airport’s north terminal parking garage.
As we enter Labor Day weekend, it’s important to remember that union shop or not management cannot abdicate its responsibility to select and retain the best talent while transitioning out employees who aren’t a good fit for the company — ensuring that everyone inside the business is able to respect the contributions of their colleagues. And management has to set a vision that inspires employees to be their best.
At the beginning of the week JetBlue increased checked bag fees to $30 for first bag. At the time I suggested that the larger US airlines were certainly looking at it, but that a major airline especially Delta needed to do it before we could say everyone would.
United turns out to be the large US airline to go first.
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.
Costa Coffee is a UK coffee shop chain, with over 2100 locations in there and over 1200 internationally about a third of which are in China. They began expanding outside the UK 20 years ago, with their first international location in Dubai which probably explains why I know them mostly from the Mideast.
The company that owns Costa Coffee also owns Premier Inns. I never realized the connection though it makes sense why I’ve always gotten my morning coffee from a Costa when staying at a Premier Inn.
You might want to defect from United to American or from Delta to Alaska, but it’s pretty tough to do that and start from scratch with a new airline. You’re well treated as an elite, and it’s rough out there flying without any status (although bottom tier of status can be approximated in many cases with the airline’s co-branded credit card). It’s hard to move your business when you’re used to getting upgrades!
So airlines came up first with status matches. That can be helpful but – from the perspective of the loyalty program – it can also be abused.
Earlier in the month I wrote about how much money US frequent flyer programs have earned so far this year.
There’s no need to do back of the envelope with Qantas, in fact Qantas shares real numbers about its frequent flyer program. It’s not hard to extrapolate to the US market, or to pinpoint devaluation of existing points as well as reduction in points-earn.
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.
I don’t think interest, or credit card interest is evil. I believe that consumers generally understand the choices they’re making, even if you or I might make different choices. And people do need credit. If you didn’t have credit cards, the need for credit would still be there, and consumers would be left with the next best option.
If you need to fix a car to get to work, or pay a medical bill, credit cards are a better way to do that than payday loans which are better than having your legs broken. You’re paying interest, but you’re also getting something of value in return.
Four years ago Orient-Express Hotels rebranded as Belmond. They had been licensing the name Orient-Express, and they found that while the name seemed familiar (because of the train) it wasn’t really associated with the chain and didn’t drive bookings. Although it’s not clear that Belmond served them better. Orient-Express is now an Accor brand. And Belmond is putting themselves up for sale. Accor could be a buyer, they’re trying to build the Orient-Express brand and could pick up twice as many hotels as their current 2025 goal and goodness knows they buy everything else. Hyatt is mentioned as a potential buyer, it’s hard to find too many hotel companies that have the resources to acquire a small luxury chain and for whom it would be worthwhile. Big players wouldn’t see three dozen hotels as moving…
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 »
