Mar 25 2016

American Express lost 10% of its card business when they lost the Costco deal. Here’s an inside account of how American Express lost the business. As costly as it was for American Express to lose Costco, it would have been more costly to retain Costco.

Details of what were expected to be the new Citibank Costco card were leaked in a regulatory filing, and we were led to believe it was basically the same product offer as the American Express Costco card — only a Visa rather than an American Express. It turns out that’s wrong, and the new Citi card is better.

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Mar 25 2016

A week and a half ago I wrote about the Andaz Maui not living up to the really high standards it set on my first visit.

There was stained furniture in the room and a terrible shrieking noise that emanated for the door. The phones in the room didn’t work. Room service delivered and then re-delivered used condiments. One of the elevators smelled like pot, something other commenters had noticed at the property in the past.

And the hotel was simply busy, a far cry form the peaceful enclave I experienced on my first visit and closer to the ‘resort factory’ (e.g. 20 minute wait to be seated for the breakfast buffet) I prefer to avoid.

That said, on cash and points the stay was still a good value for money. I did get my money’s worth, especially since I wound up in an ocean view room ultimately and with free Diamond breakfast.

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Mar 25 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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Mar 24 2016

Garry Shandling died suddenly today at aged 66.

I was fond of him because growing up I didn’t know too many people named Gary (really, anyone) and even though he had an extra ‘r’ that was close enough. Plus he was pathbreaking in many ways. His The Larry Sanders Show spoofed a behind the scenes look at talk shows, and was an early adopted of using guest stars who play themselves.

Shandling of course was the lead passenger on Saturday Night Live‘s Redneck Airlines.

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Mar 24 2016

Having wrapped up the British Airways first and business class trip report from my long weekend at Paris staying at the Park Hyatt Vendome, I’m about to commence on my next report: flying all 3 of the major Gulf carriers in first class on their Airbus A380s.

The funny thing is I didn’t even set out to do that, but wound up in Airbus A380 First Class on Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad using miles. But it would be the Emirates onboard shower spa and all-around bling, Qatar — an airline I hadn’t yet flown, and a visit to their brand new first class lounge in Doha, and the single best first class product in the sky the Etihad First Apartment.

I wanted to visit Bangkok for a few days largely for the street food and also to have some new suits made. And I’ve had visiting the Museum of Islamic Art on my mental list of things I’d really like to do for quite some time. I had a week where it was convenient to travel.

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Mar 24 2016

A United Airlines pilot, 51 year old Bruce Wayne Wallis, was arrested for running “a string of brothels in apartment complexes throughout Houston.”

Apparently he had “a half-dozen brothel apartments with six to 10 women in each one.” The women paid him “$400 a week to ply their trade.”

Let’s assume 48 prostitutes at $400 a week, he was taking in about a million dollars a year less expenses. That’s twice what what the flight attendant for a Gulf carrier made actually sleeping with passengers inflight.

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Mar 24 2016

News broke yesterday that Virgin America had received a takeover offer and was shopping itself to potential buyers.

We can eliminate United as the acquirer — the Justice Department would pretty quickly shut down such a degree of consolidation in San Francisco where United has a hub and Virgin America is based.

I suggested it was conceivable that JetBlue, a more boutique-style carrier focused on New York, could bulk up on the West Coast by aligning itself with Virgin America. I’m not predicting it but it would increase competition overall rather than reducing it. And it would presumably pass muster with anti-trust review.

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Mar 24 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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Mar 23 2016

After Hilton’s dramatic award chart gutting of nearly three years ago, there weren’t huge changes again this year.

Hilton decided to change the way they made changes to how they re-assign hotels to award categories. Instead of an annual change to tons of hotels (a schedule they really weren’t wedded to in the past anyway) they decided they would make rolling changes throughout the year. And instead of informing all members proactively of these changes, they would just post them on a web page in the name of ‘transparency’.

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Mar 23 2016

Plastiq, the service that lets you pay bills online and charge them to a credit card, has a new referral program.

For each person you refer that makes a payment of $20 or more, you earn $400 worth of fee-free credit card payments to use yourself.

The person you refer will earn $200 in fee-free payments as well. So they’re better off signing up through a referral link than signing up without one.

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