Back in December I wrote about Southwest upgrading its technology to be able to pre-assign seats and even sell first class. They basically said they were acquiring dangerous doomsday-style technology that they promised they wouldn’t use.
The new reservation system will go live later this year. In the first half of 2017 Southwest will migrate operations over to the new platform.
I make typos frequently in blog posts. I’m a one man shop, and part-time at that. I bang out a post and share it in between other jobs. I could do a lot better. With a budget over $7 billion and with 50,000 employees at my disposal, I’d like to think that I would do better.
This year is also the 25th anniversary of American Express Membership Rewards (née Membership Miles). This wasn’t the first transferrable points program — Diners Club Club Rewards launched six years earlier in 1985.
American Express has an Anniversary Collection of redemption offers. Some are new redemptions, others are “member favorites” (not new) and some are exclusive to the promotion.
American Express is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Plenti through December 31.
You earn points with Plenti partners. You can also spend your points (at 1 cent apiece in value) on those partners. A 50% bonus means getting 1.5 Plenti points per Membership Rewards points — valuing those Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each when redeemed to pay those bills.
Hyatt Gold Passport is adjusting the hotels that are in their different reward categories effective August 1.
As always you can book hotels now at the old prices to lock in savings for properties which are going up in category, and you should generally be able to get a refund starting August 1 for reservations in the future that were made at higher category prices for those properties that are going down.
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.
The Thai Airways first class lounge that most people are familiar with is on the airport’s D concourse and it’s right across the corridor from the airline’s spa.
Qatar Airways arranges lounge access through Thai, but their flight departs from the E concourse. As a result they arrange first class lounge access in the E concourse first class lounge — which is basically a big deserted room inside the Royal Orchid (business class) lounge.
While the US government hasn’t yet announced which airlines will be able to fly which routes to Havana, airlines have been allowed to fly to as many other cities in Cuba as they wish (because there’s not a lot of demand, and airlines don’t wish to fly as many routes as the US and Cuba have negotiated).
Silver Airways has grabbed onto several route authorities out of Ft. Lauderdale.
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.
About a week and a half ago Air Serbia launches its new New York JFK – Belgrade non-stop with an Airbus A330 they’ve named for Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla.
Air Serbia’s long haul business class offers fully flat seating. Seats are in a herringbone configuration similar to Virgin Atlantic’s business class.
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 »
