Saudi Arabia commandeered the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh to use as a prison as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved against powerful senior princes and government leaders over this past weekend.
Now the Saudi government has taken over the Marriott Courtyard Riyadh Diplomatic Quarter, too.
While I was in Singapore for the unveiling of Singapore Airlines new cabin products I visited the carrier’s training facility.
I’ve had better crews on Singapore and some less good crews on Singapore but on average I find their service to the best in the industry — high level, precise, and mostly consistent. It doesn’t surprise that flight attendant training is the longest in the industry.
You won’t see this offer unless you’re logged into your American Express Membership Rewards account, but some people at least are targeted for a 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan and I do not recall ever seeing an Aeroplan transfer bonus before though no doubt readers will correct me if my memory fails. I’m targeted myself.
Overall I’d say that the new terminal 4 in Singapore is gorgeous, I’m happy originating there but I wouldn’t want to connect. And as for the Cathay Pacific lounge is was amazing for a business class lounge at an outstation!
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A week and a half ago American Airlines suspended most of their catering at LAX after trace amounts of listeria was found at Gate Gourmet, which catered most of their flights (along with Delta, and several international airlines).
That’s a smart precaution to take, but it created big operational problems.
When Delta and Northwest merged, the combined Delta became the largest airline leapfrogging United and American. Then United and Continental merged and took over the number one spot. And of course American and US Airways merged, to become the biggest single airline.
Except that Delta continued to grow organically, and surpassed United.
Of course we all love it when mistake fares happen and they’re honored and we get to travel the world at insanely cheap prices, especially in business or first class.
For some readers booking a $28 ticket to Paris presents a moral challenge: should you take advantage of something you know is a mistake? My own view is that I’m happy to book it, airlines will choose to honor it or they won’t, but if they’re going to fly people to Paris for $28 I’d like to be one of those people.
On October 26, a Qatar Airways business class passenger from Doha to Manchester, U.K. was arrested on arrival for throwing mints.
The man drank 2 whiskies on the flight but reportedly appeared already drunk prior to departure. Cabin crew managed to get the man to return to his seat — but then he started throwing mints and that’s when he “had to be restrained with cable ties.”
I still have a Hyatt Credit Card. It’s great for the signup bonus which used to be 2 free nights at any Hyatt property, but is now 40,000 points after $2000 spend within 3 months. Of course a Hyatt property can cost up to 30,000 points per night for a standard room, but points are more flexible to split up across more room nights or to be used towards suites or on cash and points awards. And points can be transferred to someone else for free. Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives I keep the card, the annual free night up to category 4 is more than worth the card’s $75 annual fee. But the reason to *get* the card is the signup bonus and because Chase doesn’t limit approvals to folks with fewer than 5 new…
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 »
