With hundreds of millions of passengers passing through US airports each year every issue and problem imaginable arises. People bring their baggage both literally and figuratively. All of life’s challenges that happen outside the airport happen inside it too.
Video footage from the Tucson airport last month shows a woman carrying her baby that was then abandoned at the airport.
An anti-prostitution Utah lawmaker chose the Fairfield Inn Salt Lake City to meet a prostitute. And have the legislature pay for the room.
Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, and Citibank. So Virgin Atlantic miles are really easy to get. In general I don’t value their miles as much as many other currencies but there are strategic uses like 120,000 miles roundtrip for first class from the East Coast on their partner ANA.
Another strategic use is when they discount their own flights. Virgin adds fuel surcharges to awards, but when the mileage cost is low enough even that makes sense.
There are many great ways to earn miles, and many of those are neglected by the average frequent flyer. While the greatest miles and points deals ever are long gone, that’s how these things work. The best deals don’t last. Which is why it pays to stay alert, and not leave miles on the table.
Yesterday I wrote about American’s “Tell Me Why” podcast with Senior Vice President Kurt Stache. He laid out the airline’s plans for satellite internet and explained why the airline is getting rid of seat back video screens.
American employees comment internally on these discussions. It always amazes me how frank they are. Union protections and management promises notwithstanding I don’t think I’d be so forceful in my criticisms of management as American’s employees often are in these forums.
We often delve into the extreme detail and minutiae of rewards cards, there are tons of benefits and features and lots of details but it’s easy to lose the forest from the trees.
I thought I’d try to keep it simple, with just a single statement to encapsulate the key value proposition offered by several of the best rewards cards. See if you agree with my cutting to the chase on each.
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.
United is eliminating their mimosa/bloody mary carts and wine carts from Polaris business class effective May 1.
That should speed up service, which is great. It should also reduce consumption, which is great for United’s costs.
A college student says that Spirit Airlines told her when she made her flight reservation that she could bring her emotional support hamster named Pebbles onboard the plane. She bought Pebbles after a golf ball-sized lump developed on her neck and led to a cancer scare.
She traveled to have the growth removed, and brought her hamster with her. Spirit acknowledges that their agent told the woman this would be ok. …
Devaluation just seems to be in their bones on the Marriott side, and the Starwood merger and Starwood Preferred Guest leadership appear not to have changed that. While they announced a reasonable set of category changes for Starwood the changes at Marriott are absolutely brutal: 21% of hotels are going up in category while just 5% are going down in category. The number of points required to redeem for a free Marriott hotel night is going up at over 1000 hotels effective March 6th.
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 »
