Ranking Hotel Elite Program Breakfast Benefits

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

One hotel loyalty program executive relayed the common refrain she got from hotels in the chain when they first began rolling out a breakfast benefit for their top tier elites — “you mean we have to feed them, too?”

And yes – they do — because breakfast is a common benefit of hotel elite programs, at least at the time tier, and it’s something that the better programs need to offer in order to remain competitive.

The most coveted hotel elite perk is upgrades, especially to suites. But perhaps the second most coveted hotel elite status perk is breakfast.

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Does Visa Shortchange You 1% on Foreign Currency Conversion?

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

A few commenters have argued that Visa charges more for foreign currency conversion than MasterCard — that a Visa with ‘no foreign currency conversion fees’ isn’t really because Visa marks up their exchange rate by 1%.

I’m testing this out on a few trips. I mentioned in the comments that I’m experimenting with comparisons, and I’ve had a couple of folks ask about the status of this in the comments and also by email, so I thought I’d provide an update.

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Worst Case Scenario: Here’s How to Land a Boeing 737 If You Really Had to Do It Yourself

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

Maybe you’re an ex-military pilot who led a sqaudron over Macho Grande and lost many men. You’ve vowed never to fly again. But you find yourself onboard a commercial jetliner with the cockpit crew knocked out after they’ve eaten the fish.

Or maybe you don’t have any flying experience at all, but you’ve got to safely land your airline’s 737 anyway.

Delta pilot Tim Morgan made a video explaining everything you’d need to from the moment you enter the cockpit.

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Did You Ever Notice How Airports Make Us Want to Get Naked?

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

A Tennessee man . On Sunday, though, he was “walking through the baggage claim area after he left his clothes in the parking lot.. [and] attempted to purchase a plane ticket before airport security apprehended him, returned his clothes..”

Back in October a flight was delayed 11 hours after a passenger became unruly, stripped naked, and requested sex from a flight attendant. In May a man, angry at US Airways for overbooking his flight to Jamaica, stripped naked and walked around the Charlotte airport for an hour to protect the airline’s overbooking….

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How to Get an Upgrade on Your Next Hotel Stay

by Gary Leff

hotel office
Feb 22 2016

Hotel upgrades have a great deal of discretion. While rooms may be pre-assigned to guests, the front desk agent can usually make a decision (within certain bounds set by the hotel — the best suites may require a manager’s approval).

There are many reasons they might upgrade you — your status, because you’ve been dis-serviced in some way, because you tipped them. Here are the techniques that work.

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Free SkyTeam Elite Status If You Have Status With Another Airline

by Gary Leff

Feb 21 2016

Air Europa launched its own frequent flyer program, Suma in December.

Like Copa and United, Air Europa decided to build its own program rather than renting the loyalty engine of a larger partner carrier.

Initially at launch they were offering to status match Air France Flying Blue elites. I wrote at the time, “We’ll see, once people start registering and submitting requests, whether they’ll status match elites from other programs as well.”

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