A man tried to bomb the Asheville, North Carolina airport last week. Law enforcement had a real challenge identifying the perpetrator, until a loyalty program membership gave him away.
Even a careful would-be terrorist bomber can’t resist the allure of 10% earn.
More than 100 cockroaches were onboard two international flights bound for Kunming, China. The China News Service reported on the incident on Friday while refusing to reveal where the planes were flying from, the date this occurred, or the airline.
The South China Morning Post doesn’t identify the airline either, but does share a photo from the aircraft that was reportedly taken by quarantine inspectors and concludes that it must be a Chinese airline because of Chinese characters on the headrests.
It looks like both American and Delta will consolidate terminals at New York LaGuardia next month.
American has been operating both out of the Central Terminal (legacy American gates) and the C terminal (legacy US Airways gates) and that looks like it will soon change.
My favorite place to stay in Kuala Lumpur is the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur. I first stayed there after it opened in 2012.
I’ve been back, and it’s only gotten better. It’s one of the top hotels in the city, has perhaps my favorite club lounge breakfast, and has fantastic views of the Petronas Towers.
The change will make passes easier to use, customers won’t have to remember to bring them and won’t lose them.
It will also make them harder to sell, although no doubt some will print them and try. That’s riskier to the seller, since a pass is tied to a specific account. And that’s riskier to the buyer since there’s no way to know if a given pass being purchased was already sold and used by someone else.
American Express would only let go of the Costco business when there was no way to make a profit at the numbers Citi was talking about. It’s the perfect example of winner’s curse. Everyone knows what the business is worth, the one who wins the auction is the one that overpays.
Citi got a huge portfolio — over 11 million American Express cards across more than 7 million accounts. But they didn’t get the same card exclusivity Amex had, Costco will accept any Visa — even those of competitors.
Matthew Lunn married his wife Carly on the Greek island of Rhodes. And they took a wedding photo that’s gone viral outside the monastery of St Paul. They’re in their wedding outfits, him sans pants, and she appears to perform a sex act.
The consequence of this photo apparently is a ban on all foreign weddings on the island of Rhodes.
SurfAir is offering free private jet flights to top tier elite members of European frequent flyer programs.
Many folks have top status even living in the U.S., for instance by status match, air berlin and Turkish are especially common. God Save the Points thinks they may accept top tier status from U.S. programs as well.
I think I may have come across the most ludicrous awards ever given out in travel, the 2017 Business Traveller Awards granted at a Monday luncheon in London. Many of the selections are simply self-refuting.
As you peer into the alternate universe of these awards, bear in mind that Panasonic apparently paid for this.
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 »
