Dec 09 2017

After two and a half years of intense lobbying by Delta, American, and United they haven’t been able to get the US government to abrogate its Open Skies treaty with the UAE and Qatar and impose limits on flights and on price discounting by Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar. The Obama administration flat refused to do it.

Ultimately at this point it appears not to really matter whether the US airlines officially ‘win’ the battle, getting Congress or the administration to take action against the US airlines. They’ve already won by creating background uncertainty.

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Dec 08 2017

jetBlue used to offer more legroom than they do today. They also offered a free first checked bag. Their flights still have a touch more room than American, United, and Delta do in coach. They have free wifi.

Their goal is clearly to be just a little bit better than their competitors, while avoiding being substantially better.

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Dec 08 2017

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.

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Dec 08 2017

I want to make sure everyone considering booking this property is aware of their 90 day cancellation policy.

Even using points — versus a prepaid rate — locks you in. In fact it’s worse than that, because when you don’t show up on a points booking Hyatt has you on the hook for an undisclosed amount of cash, rather than merely forfeiting the points.

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Dec 08 2017

Amtrak is eliminating AAA and student discounts and reducing the senior discount from 15% to 10% and raising the eligibility requirement for that from 62 to 65.

The child discount will also be restricted to 1 per parent down from the current 2 per parent.

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Dec 08 2017

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.

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Dec 08 2017

Hilton announced their new ‘Connected Room’ concept, which is live at one hotel — the Hilton Garden Inn Memphis — sort of. They promise to add 7 hotels in the coming weeks and roll out in the U.S. only in the coming year.

So far this isn’t actually “in-app” and they don’t have all the technology vendors on board, but they have the right concept.

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Dec 08 2017

United got hammered during their earnings call in October. They offered a number of metrics at an investor day a year ago, said that most of those efforts were on track, but refused to give any numbers to back up or elucidate on the claim.

Their stock is down about 15% in the last year, and about 12% since the beginning of the year.

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Dec 07 2017

Delta and their transatlantic joint venture partners are adding a first checked bag fee to their least expensive fares to and from Europe.

As American and United roll out their Basic Economy fares internationally you can expect they’ll follow Delta in short order since they generally believe Delta is smarter than they are.

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Dec 07 2017

On Tuesday an African American man departing Washington National airport was in the priority line for boarding when – he reports – the woman behind him told him he was in the wrong place.

He told her he was in first class so he was in the right place. Apparently she persisted, complaining about the airline boarding military personnel with priority, “we paid for our seats so he still should have to wait.”

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