Last week $1395 business class roundtrips between New York and Paris. That’s a lot less than most airlines normally charge, but is it a good deal?
John in the comments says it’s not. It’s stupid, even.
With Marriott acquiring Starwood — a deal that hasn’t yet closed thanks to delays by Chinese regulators — a lot of members are going to be seeing changes.
Today Marriott Rewards’ strongest argument is ubiquity. What members tell me most often what they like about Marriott Rewards is ‘no matter where I go, I can earn my points’. In the US at least there are Marriott family properties pretty much anywhere.
Marriott is also already more rewarding for in-hotel spend than Starwood, and certainly clustered in the middle of the pack with competitors. And Marriott has started to improve since announcing its deal with Starwood.
Delta really does have $62 one-way fares from New York to Grand Cayman, including all taxes. Roundtrip fares are $190 which is phenomenal.
Travel is available September through mid-February with some peak dates like December 16-27 and New Years Eve and New Years Day excluded. This is a $24 base fare in each direction, so it’s mostly taxes.
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 new Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card is a Visa Infinite card. The card was already strong, last month Chase made the card great.
Here are 13 things I love:
For several years American Airlines offered a clear value proposition. It made sense to fly American and earn status in the AAdvantage program because they were more rewarding than Delta or United. I’ve written for many years that benefits which are significantly more rewarding than average won’t lost, and it’s no surprise that American has cut back on its generosity.
However with the airline operation lagging, cuts to the AAdvantage program, and strong indications of more cuts to come, I’ve been flying American less.
Hilton is doing some really cool things with their mobile app. Now they’re rolling out real-time recommendations for activities and offering discounts based on your geolocation on property.
Personalized offers based on past behavior, combined with last minute excess inventory, is certainly seen as a real frontier of marketing. Now you’ll get happy hour specials or spa discounts based on time, your preferences, and geolocation.
United and Air Canada have a fare between several US cities and Dubai that starts at $515 roundtrip. Travel is via Toronto on Air Canada.
You can fly from Newark, Washington DC (Dulles or National), Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and possibly other cities as well.
SAS has renamed fuel surcharges “Domestic/International fees”.
A dozen years ago airlines introduced fuel surcharges but with fuel half off its high, and with governments regularly taking the position that a fuel surcharge must approximate the actual cost of fuel, airlines have simply renamed the fee.
Making changes without notice to a loyalty program is the worst thing any program can do.
It’s unethical, because it breaks a promise made to members. It’s bad business, because it undermines confidence in the program (and that confidence is necessary for the program to successfully drive consumer behavior). And in some cases it’s even illegal.
A loyalty program is a promise of future value for purchasing behavior today. Changes without notice renege on that deal.
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 »
