Apr 22 2016

Marriott has once again clarified their new late checkout benefit for Gold and Platinum elite members, this time seemingly making it a real guarantee.

On Tuesday Marriott Rewards announced three new benefits similar to offerings of Starwood Preferred Guest. However the devil was in the details. Marriott quickly clarified that guaranteed late checkout wasn’t guaranteed after all.

I have to give them credit for recognizing quickly that this was a problem and doing something about it because Marriott has once again clarified the late checkout benefit.

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Apr 22 2016

Scott Kirby reported that they’re already “in the middle of” negotiations for a new credit card deal. Their current deal runs through 2018. Since they signed that 5 year deal, Delta, United, and Southwest have all re-upped theirs.

Every quarter (for instance here and here) Scott Kirby laments that competitors are seeing year-over-year increased revenue from the renewals of credit card deals, while there’s no material year-over-year “lift” from a more recent renewal for American.

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Apr 22 2016

Luxury Travel Diary has an auction for 3 nights in Dildo, a town in Newfoundland, Canada. Here’s a review of the bed and breakfast.

Wikipedia suggests that the town is most-known for its name nonetheless, there has actually been a movement to change the name.

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Apr 22 2016

Earlier this week I argued that the American Express Black Card was really just a very expensive Platinum card. The Platinum card gives you most of the perks of Centurion for a $450 annual fee versus a $7500 initiation fee and $2500 annual fee for the Black Amex.

However, The Points Guy explains why the card made sense for him.

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Apr 22 2016

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.

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Apr 21 2016

On United’s first quarter earnings call this morning they re-iterated a plan to roll out basic economy fares in the second half of 2016.

This isn’t about offering you lower fares. United already matches the low fares in the market. Basic economy is a way of moving some passengers who buy those fares today to buy more expensive fares instead.

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Apr 21 2016

Through June 3 Hilton is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points. That’s the best bonus and best price I’ve seen.

Hilton usually charges a penny apiece for points, so with this bonus is selling points for half a cent each. They’ve offered this before, for instance last June. Here they’re selling points for around what they’re worth.

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Apr 21 2016

Reader Adam P. paid $69 for an extra legroom economy seat. He researched the seat and chose the specific one intentionally. It’s a widebody aircraft, and an aisle seat in the middle section.

Onboard he encountered a family that was separated. He agreed to change seats. She then took $100 from another passenger to give up that seat, and sit farther from her family.

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Apr 21 2016

Miles are still an amazing means to get premium cabin travel without spending a lot of money.

Redeemable miles are no longer a reason to choose to fly one airline over another. And if you’re going to earn elite status from your flying anyway, that’s great, and you should try to put yourself over the top of the next-higher tier you’d make naturally anyway.

But the airlines are diving head first into destroying their success using frequent flyer programs to turn a commodity product (a seat that gets you from A to B) into a differentiated one. By offering revenue-based programs for earning and potentially burning, they offer mere discounts to customers who had been the least price sensitive. By limiting benefits they give those customers who would spend more and never consider another airline little reason to do so.

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