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 is in a tough spot strategically. They aren’t big enough to compete for a significant share of global corporate business, with only about 1/8th the hotels of Marriott and Hilton. They aren’t big enough to compete for the bulk of wallet share from frequent guests — they just don’t have hotels everywhere customers need to be.
With more and more being taken away from economy on most airlines as premium cabins get the bulk of attention, it’s just nice to see an 18.5 inch wide economy seat and with investment in the little touches that make all the difference in tight quarters over a long flight.
Most of the attention at the unveiling event was on the premium cabins, but a willingness to invest where most people sit is something I think Singapore Airlines ought to be shouting from the rooftops.
Recently American Express stopped processing payments with Plastiq. They suggested this was temporary, I’m surprised by how temporary it was, since they’re back processing American Express cards for payments again. Note though that they don’t take Amex for everything — notably mortgage payments.
Last Wednesday details were announced for the new Uber Visa from Barclaycard. Applications are now live.
The card offers 4% back on restaurants. It has a $100 signup bonus. There’s cell phone protection and a rebate on Netflix or Spotify. It’s an interesting no fee card with no foreign transaction fees but it’s missing premium benefits from Uber.
On Thursday in Singapore the airline unveiled their new business class seat for the Airbus A380, going into their five new aircraft and retrofitting their other 14 remaining A380s through 2020. I attended the unveiling.
The seat reclines flat, meaning it will also be possible to sit in a reclining and relaxing position, so it’s good as a seat and not just for sleeping. And the divider between middle seats goes all the way down to create a double bed and indeed a cocoon for two people traveling together.
Singapore Airlines unveiled new cabin products at a presentation in Singapore in Thursday. I poked around the new seats and also took video.
All in all I love the style of the new Suites. They’re large, they’re gorgeous, incredibly sleek and sexy. Singapore goes from having one of the top first class products in the sky with their current A380 to something much better.
Listeria was found at Gate Gourmet at LAX, and American has suspended provisioning catering from the facility. Delta and several international airlines also use Gate Gourmet at LAX but have not taken a similar step.
For the last few years American Airlines has focused like a laser on “D0” — departing exactly on time.
They believe that the number one thing they can do to make sure flights arrive on time is to make sure they depart on time. Departures are more controllable than arrivals. After all government completely controls the air space between airports.
I don’t think American’s domestic meal service is very good. In fact that’s an understatement. I don’t think United’s is very good, but American’s is worse.
One area where US airlines are consistently bad across the board is breakfast.
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 »
