New Marriott Program: Right Now Your Status is Whatever You Say it Is

by Gary Leff

diamond guest
Aug 20 2018

Starwood Preferred Guest has moved onto the Marriott IT platform. Marriott brought their system down on Saturday to transition everything over. (Loyalty programs always do these things on Saturdays for good reason.)

IT is hard, and things haven’t gone as smoothly as we would have hoped. Awards haven’t been redeemable at all properties, and for some it’s been sporadic. However for the most part systems are now largely functional on Monday afternoon. But not for members whose accounts have the wrong status.

Continue Reading »

American Expanding Flagship Lounge By 35% Shutting Down New York JFK B Club (Starting 9/1)

by Gary Leff

hotel lounge
Aug 20 2018

Effective September 1 the New York JFK lounge will have 35% more space because they’re converting the attached B concourse Admirals club to become part of the Flagship lounge. This adds 7000 square feet to the existing 19,541 square foot Flagship lounge footprint.

That means the only Admirals Club at JFK will be the C concourse lounge. However most domestic flights — which is what most Admirals Club passengers are flying — depart out of the satellite C concourse and as a result the B club which was renovated last summer doesn’t ever seem busy.

Continue Reading »

Church Group of 40 Shows Up 2 Hours Early, Refused Boarding on American Airlines Thanks to D0

by Gary Leff

airport
Aug 20 2018

At American Airlines nothing is more important than ‘D0’ it often seems as if American would be happy if they could eliminate customers from the equation and just run their operation they’d be happy.

D0 means flights departing exactly on-time. And they’re willing to sacrifice most everything else for that goal. Gate agents can skip processing upgrades. Flight attendants get called in if they delay a flight for catering to bring servingware for international first class.

Continue Reading »

Delta Completes 600th Plane With Seat Back Video While American Prepares to Remove Theirs

by Gary Leff

flight attendant
Aug 19 2018

While American Airlines prepares to remove seat back video screens from their domestic fleet, Delta has added the screens now to 600 planes.

According to Delta’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Tim Mapes, “We continue to invest in seat-back screens, because customers continue to tell us they’re important.”

Which one is right?

Continue Reading »

New Travel Scam: Stealing From Passenger Bags in the Overhead

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 19 2018

Don’t put your most important items such as money and passports in the overhead bin if you can avoid it. Not every seat allows bags at your feet, but computers should go there at least during flight and check that everything is in place immediately once it’s been out of your sight.

TSA screeners steal from passengers at checkpoints. Baggage handlers steal from checked bags. oneworld’s head of finance allegedly stole $2.2 million. And a former Miss USA stole noise cancelling headphones. So why not passengers stealing from each others’ carry on bags?

Continue Reading »