United discovered with Basic Economy that when you offer an inferior product at the same price, customers will choose your competitors. They lost about $100 million thanks to an own goal that was so thoroughly predictable that I predicted it here.
Is there dissatisfaction within the airline over basic economy?
Did you know that it’s possible to pay Marriott a room rate that doesn’t include housekeeping? It’s worse than an airline’s Basic Economy where you can pay for a seat without advance seat assignment or carry on bag, because housekeeping is still provided it’s just charged separately.
This isn’t like Starwood’s “Make a Green Choice” where you give up daily housekeeping in exchange for points. Your rate includes housekeeping but you can save the hotel money and receive a portion of the savings back. Instead you just pay more.
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.
Uber is still operating in London, but their license to continue to do so expires at the end of the month and it’s been announced that it will not be renewed.
To be clear Uber can appeal, and the regulatory decision spells out concerns that Uber will no doubt offer to placate, but the process wasn’t to judiciously negotiate with Uber it was to dramatically drop the hammer.
More or less the only dimension along which US airlines compete is fares. Their products are otherwise extremely similar. Delta is a little more reliable. United has a little better mileage program.
But they compete largely on price and not quality. And prices have been falling.
Different hotels and chains take a variety of different views on what it’s alright for guests to ‘steal’ from their rooms.
Hyatt wants you to take their toiletries (but not actually raid the maid cart). On the other hand there are hotels RFID tagging towels to keep you from stealing.
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.
San Juan airport will reopen today to commercial traffic.
However the airport isn’t going to be fully open. According to the FAA the airport is closed to commercial flights from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m. (2100Z to 1100Z) with only military and hurricane relief flights allowed to operate.
Back in the spring the TSA was testing a requirement to make passengers take their books and papers out of their bags for inspection.
The idea of having to present what you’re reading to the government at a checkpoint was… concerning.
The TSA killed the test — or so they said at the time.
Involuntary denied boardings are rare. They’re continuing to become even more rare. And when they happen there are usually volunteers at much lower amounts. Still the airline wants to process them better and cheaper, while they adopted a policy of going up to $10,000 getting to that amount would be a failure.
They also want to be able to sell more seats to people who want them the most.
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 »
