The Marriott program is better than I expected it to be when the chain acquired Starwood. But don’t be lulled into complacency that this year’s experience is what you can expect. We know that things are as good as they’ll ever be right now because Marriott told us so.
I love deep discount fares to Hawaii, but it’s a long flight and I’d much rather sit up front. I used to love it when Alaska Airlines $99 companion tickets were valid for first class travel, I’d buy first.
While first class can be cheaper to Hawaii than on similar-distance business routes, it’s rarely super cheap. So sub-$900 first class roundtrips from the West Coast are worth highlighting.
Deals are available on Hawaiian Airlines and on Delta.
TravelZork shares with me data on oneworld airline S7’s co-brand credit card acquisition. The most fascinating statistics center around what’s driving customers to sign up for their credit card. One data point in particular stands out: their inflight magazine is 5 times more effective than flight attendant announcements at getting customers to sign up for their card.
S7 Airlines had to discontinue their flight attendants promoting the credit card because their crews refused to do it.
American Airlines is a lot stricter with same day confirmed changes than their competitors are.
Only Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members can same day change for free, everyone else pays $75. You have to keep the same number of stops and keep the same connecting city or cities. You can’t connect in Dallas instead of Chicago. You can’t move to a non-stop flight from a connection or vice versa. And you can only make a same day change when specific inventory is available.
American Airlines President Robert Isom spoke about his airline’s future at Washington National airport this week.
As part of ‘Project Journey’ the airport authority is building a new course that will replace the current hated gate 35X. Isom shared what that changes that will bring.
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.
Two years ago American launched a new program to e-mail non-elite flyers with offers to sell first class seats starting a week before departure. I haven’t heard much about it recently, but JonNYC says that the program is back. AA “Early upgrades” — upgrades offered via email, UP TO a week in advance (that’s when they could be offered, they clear later on), have been re-launched. Offers will be emailed to targeted/selected customers. — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 7, 2018 .. It states that early upgrades will only be cleared if there’s enough room to accommodate -all- forms of requested elite upgrades — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 7, 2018 United is known to sell first class seats cheap to non-elites. They do this while elite frequent flyers remain on the upgrade waitlist and are not given the…
Last Friday, on August 31, American Airlines flight AA663 from Phoenix to Kona lost all of its functioning lavatories. A passenger reports that “only one restroom at the front of the plane was open, but that the toilet was overflowing.” This gives new meaning to the age-old question of whether coach passengers should use the first class lavatory.
A passenger flushed a diaper down the toilet and that caused the whole system to stop functioning midway through the six and a half hour flight.
American Airlines has introduced Krug champagne to Flagship First Dining. And according to a spokesperson, “it will be in the lounges until at least March. If we receive positive responses, we’ll keep it around a bit longer.”
American Airlines announced that they now have high speed internet and live tv on 100 domestic narrowbody aircraft. The plan is to roll it out across the rest of their domestic fleet over the coming year as they add high speed satellite internet to the aircraft.
There are 111 aircraft equipped with Gogo’s 2Ku satellite internet and these planes offer free live TV. All of the airline’s Airbus A320s have the product along with “more than 60 A319s” according to internal documents. Today the product is available only on legacy US Airways aircraft and the A320s do not yet have seat power, so bring a backup battery if you want to watch something.
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 »
