Earlier in the year I offered a simple model ranking hotel programs.
A new IdeaWorks study (.pdf) finds similar values for each hotel’s currency when searching across real world redemption scenarios. (They don’t include Hyatt in their survey, but do add Wyndham.)
A couple of weeks ago the American Airlines website started asking for a state of residence when you book a ticket.
There’s been a lot of speculation that this has something to do with the REAL ID Act and the expectation that some state drivers licenses will be refused by the TSA for travel starting in January. That’s not what this is for.
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.
Chase has their ‘5/24 rule’ where they won’t approve most new credit cards for many customers with 5 or more new card accounts within the last 24 months.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Bank of America was cracking down on issuing new credit cards to customers who have opened several with the bank recently.
The most important customer service lesson I ever learned was on an easel pad in Randy Petersen’s office (“The House of Miles” which was located on Frequent Flyer Point in Colorado Springs) the first time I visited: “Don’t ever say no. What I can do for you is…”
In other words, it’s not enough just to listen to what a customer asks for and tell them whether it’s allowed. You must address their problem. You can’t always give them what they want, but if you understand their needs you can offer a solution that’s the best available given constraints.
There’s an amazing business class roundtrip fare on oneworld airlines between Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo and the U.S. Connections are going to be via London Heathrow (British Airways) or Helsinki (Finnair). Travel is available to San Francisco, Chicago, Washington Dulles and perhaps other cities as well.
As Bruce Schneier says when you ask amateurs to do frontline security you get amateur security. See something say something usually fails. You get too many false positives that it becomes noise and not intelligence and amateurs don’t actually know what to look for.
United is already planning to expand the Chicago lounge due to crowding. And they’re planning to open up these new premium lounges in Houston, Newark, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington Dulles, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London.
However none of these additional lounges will open before the end of the year. And in fact while two months ago they were describing the San Francisco, Newark, and London lounges as opening ‘early 2018’ they’re now describing those as just 2018 .
Four years ago United removed the ability to see Singapore Airlines award space on their website. When most airlines are trying hard to get partner awards bookable online so members don’t have to call, United made the choice to take away access to Singapore space online so members would have to pick up the phone (and likely so members wouldn’t even know it was an option).
At the time United claimed this was based on an agreement they made with Singapore Airlines. Singapore called this out as a lie saying the decision was United’s and one “we have no influence over.”
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.
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 »
