News and notes from around the interweb: United sent a Very Strongly Worded Letter to its pilots about safety. United will start serving real meals on its regional jets effective March 1. 4 members of the crew of a Norwegian flight headed from New York to Stockholm walked off, disagreeing with the captain that it was safe to fly in the snow. The flight landed in Stockholm without incident – though there’s some disagreement now as to whether there were the legally required minimum number of crew onboard for the flight. (HT: Alan H.) Thousands of Air India flights are delayed when crew members don’t bother to show up on time. A revolutionary new approach of docking the pay of crew that do this will be tested. More coverage of the investigation (including analysis by…
Marriott Plans to Start Expiring Points
As if it’s not enough that Marriott Rewards points will be worth less, Marriott has announced that points will expire after two years of account inactivity. These people seem so happy that their points can now expire! It’s been in the terms and conditions that Marriott points expire for years, as far back as I remember, but they’ve never actually done it. Now the terms say, “The Rewards Program will start enforcing this policy on February 1, 2016.” Those with lifetime elite status are exempt from this change. Here are the details: In fairness, Starwood, Hyatt, and Hilton points will expire after a period of inactivity. IHG Rewards Club points do not.
Malaysia Flight MH370 Was Hijacked By Vladimir Putin, Because Underpants Gnomes
There’s a New York Magazine piece suggesting that MH370 was hijacked and flown to Kazakhstan, likely to an air strip leased by Russia. All it requires to get there is assuming that data suggesting the plane went somewhere else must have been faked, and once you ignore it you can plot a path that could get you there. One of the commenters on my blog had learned that the compartment on 777s called the electronics-and-equipment bay, or E/E bay, can be accessed via a hatch in the front of the first-class cabin.15 If perpetrators got in there, a long shot, they would have access to equipment that could be used to change the BFO value of its satellite transmissions. They could even take over the flight controls. Once you learn that “there were three ethnically…
Marriott Rewards Whacks Members Again With Big Increase in Reward Prices
Most hotel programs assign individual hotels to ‘categories’ with a fixed number of points required to redeem the hotels in each category. And chains more or less adjust the hotels assigned to each category once a year. Starwood announced their hotel reward category changes several days ago. About the same number of hotels are getting more expensive as are getting less expensive, with increases concentrated in the U.S. Hyatt announced their changes in December with more hotels going down in price than going up. (Hilton of course no longer makes announcements about annual changes, they just post changes to a web page throughout the year. This is in the name of ‘transparency’. Hilton is also an anomaly in that there are huge point ranges for several of the categories, which makes category assignments almost meaningful…
When You Can — and When You Can’t — Earn Starpoints for Uber
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Starwood and Uber announced a new partnership that lets you earn Starpoints for Uber rides. You earn 1 point per dollar spent; more (based on your status with SPG) when you using Uber on days you’re staying at a Starwood property. This earning is entirely separate from the points you earn from your credit card for the spend itself. That means you can earn 1 Starpoint per dollar…
Delta Does the Right Thing, Will Refund Overcharged Award Tickets
A couple of days ago I reported that Delta appears to be charging more miles for elites booking economy awards than general members. Logged in elites would see a one-way flight for 17,500 miles that general members would see priced at 12,500 miles. While there was a great deal of teeth gnashing over this, I did not believe it was intentional. Delta’s narrative is that they want to reward their most profitable customers more than others. Charging more miles for elites sends the exact opposite message. I don’t doubt that there have been plenty of programming changes to the way Delta prices awards, some of them in the background, and some that may be ready to go live but aren’t yet fully tested. Nonetheless, I don’t think this specific result, where General Members can book…
The Target REDcard Song
It takes a certain kind, the sort of folks who refer to the Target – American Express product REDcard as ‘Redbird’, to really appreciate this. Does your area Target sell REDcard? Have you been using it? Are you worried they’ll stop allowing funds to be loaded at the register with a credit card?
Double Your Club Carlson Points Earning, All Year Long Without a Promotion
@ckramer tweets, Club Carlson has a business program that will let a separate business account earn up to 10 points per dollar for eligible stays, in addition to the points earned by the guest into their own account. The guest and the company account administrator can be the same person (so they would effectively earn an extra 10 points per dollar for their stay). And the company administrator can earn points for others’ stays as well — earning Club Carlson points even when they aren’t traveling. Here’s the program.
Register (Just in Case!) for Hilton Double Points or Miles
This isn’t an exciting promotion, but you should register anyway. Even if you don’t regularly stay at HIlton properties. Double points are better than single points, if only marginally so. You never know when you’ll wind up staying at a Hilton, there are lots of them, so even if they aren’t in your plans it’s better for you to have registered and earned the points when it was on your radar than have to remember later and most likely forget. Here’s the promotion. Register and become a very happy mother and child, I think the kid is happy because he’s drinking his ‘milk’ from a wine glass. The mother is happy because she’s inspecting for something in her son’s hair — dandruff? lice? — and not finding anything. Promotion details You choose between earning double…
Rock Singer Arrested in Denver for Riding Baggage Carousel
Puddle of Mudd lead singer Wes Scantlin was arrested after riding a baggage carousel in Denver into the secure area of the airport. [TSA] told him to get off, and he refused. They didn’t arrest him immediately; they warned him: ‘Hey, if you don’t get off the luggage rack, we’re going to arrest you.’ He refused to get off, so they arrested him…. After his ride on the baggage carousel in Denver, Scantlin was taken to a downtown Denver jail, while Daniels and his staff tried to figure out a way to bail him out so that he could perform that night. “He wasn’t supposed to get out until Tuesday because he had warrants in four other states,” says Daniels. “So they had to clear each warrant to make sure they weren’t extraditable. And they…
