The Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite Mastercard just launched in April. It put Barclays into the transferable miles game alongside American Express, Chase, and Citibank.
The play with this card was the unique earning structure — a bonus for spending on the card each year instead of an initial signup bonus.
United Airlines had some confusion last year over whether or not passengers in yoga pants were allowed to fly. They are.
But did you know there’s an airline where men aren’t allowed to travel in shorts?
American Express just refreshed their Premier Rewards Gold Card and renamed it “American Express Gold Card.”
Most importantly the card raises the bar for points-earning at US restaurants and US grocery stores, while retaining strong points-earning on airline spend. And they’ve added a new monthly credit for dining. Today’s changes to the product – for me – make it the most rewarding card for ongoing spend.
In August I wrote about a ring of thieves stealing from passenger bags in the overhead bin.
There are occasional stories of passengers stealing from others’ carry on bags, usually this happens during long international flights when the cabin is dark and many passengers are asleep.
Yesterday I wrote about Marriott hotel employees in Boston walking out.
Now 2300 employees have walked out at several San Francisco properties.
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.
Hyatt purchased Miraval not because they wanted a standalone wellness resort, but because they want to extend the brand and create an association with wellness across their hotels. They purchased Exhale spas as part of the same strategy.
To date they’ve offered discounts and bonus points, getting their feet wet, and today they’ve rolled out Exhale Spa benefits as a feature of the World of Hyatt program.
Last month Marriott introduced its first big promotion since launching their new program.
However not everyone was able to register for it. Marriott even said this was intentional. Now they’re saying it wasn’t, and they want to help folks get registered that weren’t able to earlier.
American Airlines used to believe that ‘basic economy’ would be worth a billion dollars to the airline.
We keep hearing that basic economy is a success. American now concedes that despite those proclamations that it has ‘underperformed’.
Qatar has the best business class product in the world in its new ‘QSuites’. To be sure even their older Airbus A350 business class is very good, a B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seat and a phenomenal soft product. But QSuites are revolutionary suites with doors and moveable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space.
Two U.S. routes that see QSuites aircraft have outstanding availability for four or more business class award seats for much of 2019. And I throw in another route with great family business class space with a new Qatar business product as well.
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 »
