The Financial Times reports on American Express lowering the fees they’re charging merchants in order to drive greater acceptance for their cards. Several readers sent me this link asking for my take, including whether “lower fees would mean less rewards?”
Iberia is great because — although accounts that have been open 90 days and have had some activity can move between Avios programs already — you can circumvent the active accounts requirement and go straight to the Spanish carrier’s program. And that lets you redeem for Iberia flights for far fewer miles, and without huge fuel surcharges.
Despite this deepening relationship with IAG I wasn’t expecting news that Chase would issue an Iberia credit card in the United States.
Hilton formally dropped award charts a year ago but promised that they weren’t raising prices.
I wrote at the time after speaking to program leadership that Hilton says they are not increasing the maximum price of any hotel, and do not intend to do so. If they increase pricing and they do not make an announcement of this in advance they will come under much-deserved criticism.
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.
American Airlines flight 1316 from Chicago – Sacramento turned around on Friday after a passenger started talking about a bomb and fiddling with a liquid filled pipe and battery.
Passenger Michael Bielinski reportedly tapped the woman beside him on the shoulder. He told her “we’re all going to die” and the “plane is going to explode.”
United Airlines has 14 more gates than American at Chicago O’Hare. American is opening 5 new gates that they paid for, reducing the gap to 9. But the new O’Hare expansion plan re-opens the gap and returns United to a 14 gate advantage.
After escalating things by FOIAing communications between the Chicago’s Mayor and United this week — and as the city was scheduled to approve the plan, American’s lack of assent notwithstanding — there are now reports of a stand down and a deal.
In 1978 nearly $6 million was robbed from Lufthansa at New York JFK — in what was then the largest cash robbery ever in the United States.
The heist was investigated for over 35 years, even leading to an arrest in 2014 of a purported high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family, however the then-78 year old man was acquitted. Much of the proceeds of the Lufthansa robbery were said to have been gambled away in casinos.
Yesterday we learned that United required a passenger to put her dog in the overhead bin on a flight from Houston to New York LaGuardia, and the dog died.
Although a flight attendant did insist the woman put her dog in the overhead bin for the flight, United wants us to know that it’s not really the flight attendant’s fault.
It was only yesterday that news came out United required a passenger to put her dog in the overhead bin on a flight from Houston to New York LaGuardia, and the dog died.
Now it turns out United accidentally sent a Kansas family’s dog to Japan.
American Airlines is making a move that should better align themselves with joint venture partner Japan Airlines on flights from Tokyo to the U.S. and with hoped-for joint venture partner Qantas on flights between Australia and New Zealand and the U.S.
They’ve collaborated with chefs for each of those markets with new menus live today.
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 »
