United’s new business class Polaris soft product goes live December 1 and I spoke with Maria Walter, Managing Director of Product and Brand Strategy, about the roll out.
She emphasized how they’re viewing Polaris as more than just the seat. It’s the onboard service, food and amenities as well as lounges on the ground as well.
Yesterday a passenger on United’s flight UA1892 from New Orleans to Houston pulled the emergency exit door over the wing of the Boeing 737 on arrival and jumped out.
Apparently the flight’s early arrival meant it didn’t have a gate open.
When Marriott acquired Starwood, plenty of commentators started to wonder about the future of several of Starwood’s brands. After all, many of them are small — Starwood wasn’t growing as quickly as investors would have liked, hence the selloff in the first place.
And clearly many of the brands are duplicative with Marriott’s brands. Not all of the brands perform well in their niche for instance Four Points. Even with Starwood’s Sheraton revival plan the Sheraton brand remains a bit of a mess.
Despite donating big to Democrats this cycle, Delta’s CEO was on the Trump train. The hope: that a Donald Trump presidency could revive protectionism, shut out Gulf carriers from US markets, reducing consumer choice and increasing fares.
The “Trump is good for Delta” mantra likely didn’t trickle down to Delta’s front line. However, an offensive inflight rant was allowed to proceed and go viral. Delta apologized for not taking swifter action.
This past Friday IHG Rewards Club hosted a ‘loyalty summit’ in New York at the Kimpton Eventi that I attended.
It was a small group, in an intimate space, although super cool — directly outside the window they control a bright screen where their program logo was displayed.
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Delta and KLM are offering transatlantic business class for just $930 roundtrip between Helsinki and New York.
This is one for my European readers, or those who want to position themselves to Europe to start the trip. Flying from New York costs about three times as much.
On Friday a mother in her 20s was waiting to board a British Airways flight from Tenerife South to London Gatwick along with her two kids. So she kills the time as one does on a holiday route traveling with young children: by drinking.
And by getting into an altercation at the gate, “a spiralling argument at the gate about being a “benefits mum”.”
The introduction of the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card is a big deal. It’s an 80,000 point signup bonus card (after $5000 spend within 3 months) that has a $95 annual fee. Many cards with bonuses like this are premium cards at much higher price point.
But there’s a significant benefit of the card I’ve missed until now.
Qantas searched a flight attendant and found he had “a can and a bottle of beer in his jacket, two 50ml bottles of vodka in his trousers and a 50ml bottle of gin in his bag.”
He claimed the beer in his jacket and vodka in his pants got there by mistake. He “he inadvertently pocketed the beer and vodka while serving passengers.” And while he really had no idea, “the gin might have come from a hotel mini bar.”
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 »
