The only real value I’ve ever gotten from ‘ThanksAgain’ is earning miles at brick and mortar retailers when I didn’t expect it.
When they first began they had a ton of dry cleaners in their portfolio. More recently they’ve focused on signing up the majority of merchants at several airports. Pay with your registered credit card, accumulate points for the purchase. You can set up different accounts, and link different credit cards to each.
In response to a question about ‘what comes next’ after the American Airlines reservation system integration, airline President Scott Kirby made two points. It’s telling that these are the two things he chose to highlight.
Scott said “more innovation within the frequent flyer program” and “doing more to disaggregate the product” and doing more to “offer fares that can compete with low cost carriers” that have “a suite of attributes that are appropriate to those prices.”
Here’s the list of changes and new features that are part of the AwardWallet new beta.
If you want in on the beta, first sign up for AwardWallet if you do not already have an account, and then use this upgrade link.
I spent a good bit of my work day on Saturday in the American Airlines club on the B concourse of the Phoenix airport.
The lounge is one floor up in the terminal between gates B5 and B7, and is one of three American clubs in Phoenix (the other two are on the A concourse, one of which is currently closed for renovations.
The staff were exceptionally friendly and welcoming. The only negative I’d offer is that as legacy US Airways employees they are working off of a much more automated version of the airline’s reservation system than some legacy American agents — so they may not be able to work some of the miracles during irregular operations that I’ve experienced in American clubs in the past.
This is credit to One Mile at a Time who points out that Etihad is opening 6 or more first class seats on most of its US departingi flights for next summer.
Etihad offers first class from New York JFK, San Francisco, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
Independent lounge networks, not affiliated with an airline, can be quite nice. Take the Airspace Lounge in San Diego or any of the Centurion lounges. Most contract lounges around the world though, not so much.
In the world of ‘not so much’ I think Phoenix’s The Club lounge is even ‘less so much’. Here’s why.
Passengers in the baggage claim area of the Lisbon airport early Monday morning were being shown something often restricted to pay per view (or the internet).
The television above one of the carousels was running porn.
Scott McCartney covers the new IdeaWorks study of hotel loyalty program value for the Wall Street Journal.
This effort seeks to determine the rebate value that your spend has with the largest hotel loyalty programs, and estimate the value of a hotel point.
They come close to offering reasonable estimates of the value of points from IHG Rewards Club, Hilton HHonors, Starwood, and Marriott (although they slightly overvalue those points).
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.
A flight was delayed 11 hours after a passenger became unruly, stripped naked, and requested sex from a flight attendant this past Saturday.
Rumor has it the passenger in question lacked elite status in the low cost carrier’s frequent flyer program and was thus requesting benefits he wasn’t entitled to without ancillary fees.
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 »
