Nov 06 2017

Now Air France KLM Flying Blue has formally announced details of its new program which goes into effect April 1, 2018. And they’re both convoluted and I expect destructive of value — but we don’t yet know how destructive.

Reportedly Flying Blue has a goal with their changes of increasing revenue from the program by 15%. They’ve revealed that while they sometimes talk about 31 million members of the program, there are 15 million active members that can be communicated with and about 1.5 million elites, and that all members redeem about 400,000 award tickets per year.

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Nov 05 2017

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has made a bold move to consolidate power, arresting senior princes, the wealthy, and former government leaders under the banner of a new anti-corruption campaign.

The group that was arrested included Prince al-Waleed bin Talal who is the largest individual shareholder in Citigroup, the second largest shareholder in 21st Century Fox, and owner of the Four Seasons George V in Paris.

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Nov 05 2017

Chicago O’Hare started offering a bus between terminal 3 and terminal 5. In theory this should save a lot of time for American Airlines passengers in terminal 3 transferring to international airlines departing terminal 5. (United passengers from terminal 1 could walk over to terminal 3 to take the bus if they wished.)

The bus was supposed to run from 8:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. at least that’s how it was announced. Except that it doesn’t.

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Nov 05 2017

Did you know that you can get free breakfasts, room upgrades and $100 of in-hotel credit if you book through a specific website or luxury travel advisor? This is over and above your usual status benefits that you get when you book stays in these hotels.

There are several great ways to book stays at nicer hotels — better than booking with the hotel directly.

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Nov 05 2017

Marriott will give you 1000 points for answering a simple question on Twitter. Here’s the answer.

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Nov 05 2017

Priority Pass was always a useful tool though it used to be much more under the radar. Now it comes with myriad premium credit cards, and with complimentary access not just the cardmember but for guests in many cases as well.

One of the interesting options included with Priority Pass is access to the ‘Minute Suites’ facilities — in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and both locations (terminals A and D) at Dallas Fort-Worth.

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Nov 05 2017

If frequent flyer credits at United, Delta, and American are earned based on the price of a ticket rather than the distance flown, why are those credits called miles?

Frequent flyer programs were meant to provide differentiation amongst airlines where none existed. Airline seats are more or less commodity products. Programs create brand loyalty, and get a customer to take a connection rather than a non-stop or wait for a flight 2 hours later instead of flying at the ideal time.

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Nov 05 2017

With American and Etihad in a political spat, American killing their codesharing with Etihad, it’s unclear how long this partnership would last. However it remains one of the best uses of miles in the world. First class is 115,000 miles each way between the US and Mideast or “Indian Subcontinent” which includes the Maldives. Get booking using this trick for sure!

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Nov 04 2017

n traditional airline economics, a major airline makes money by locating its hub in a major city with significant business travel.

Ideally owning that hub, business customers will pay a premium for non-stop flights and there will be limited competition for those non-stops. The airline builds its schedule around meeting the needs of those business customers, and then fills empty seats at a discount with leisure passengers.

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Nov 04 2017

Las Alcobas is a small boutique hotel in the Polanco area of Mexico City. It joined Starwood two and a half years ago and has just 35 rooms (4 suites).

The area is near Lincoln Park, street food and fine dining. I managed to score a 50% off rate here by spending 1000 Starwood points.

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