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.
For a long time I’ve said that you need to have at least one of each flavor of major card — Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. That way you’re prepared for whatever lucrative promotion comes along.
Recently there have been some big offers from Discover Card, and there are regularly big standalone savings offers from American Express but I was actually starting to question whether my advice was still relevant because we haven’t seen as many airline or hotel loyalty program offers funded by payment networks.
With this new offer that stacks on top of free nights after two stays I’m finally vindicated
The American Express Centurion Lounge at New York LaGuardia is giving away free Uber rides into New York through December 31.
Stop by once by the end of the year and you get a code that will give you two free rides from LaGuardia to any of the 5 boroughs of New York.
This Iran Air pilot lands like a boss. With no landing gear deployed at the plane’s nose, it touches down perfectly and slows down before lowering the plane’s nose and coming to a stop.
I couldn’t even tell anything was wrong until 20 seconds into the video. But from 28 to 50 seconds it’s amazing. Watch:
Luxury Travel Diary, a high-end travel blog with great reviews based in the UK, has a bunch of travel auctions — many that go too cheap, real bargains.
They wanted to highlight some of these, and offered to help organize a giveaway of a 4 night hotel stay in Paris for readers of this blog. I suppose that folks who already know about these auctions don’t like this added attention, because frankly there aren’t enough bidders relative to the value of the offerings and some of these items go too cheap.
When Spirit Airlines launched the Free Spirit program it included an opportunity to name a plane with enough points-earning. I don’t think anyone ever earned enough points (perhaps they all expired, with Spirit’s 90 day inactivity rule).
Years ago there was talk of Virgin America naming a plane for Flyertalk, or letting Flyertalk’s online community members name a plane, but that never materialized.
The world’s largest charter airline is offering the opportunity for you to choose the name of a 787.
Airport workers can get creative using their positions to extract cash. If they can’t pocket the security tax, they can blackmail passengers.
Airport security in Manila apparently will drop bullets into passengers’ bags as they go through the screening checkpoint. Passengers then have to pay a ‘fine’ or face charges of illegal possession of ammunition.
Cathay Pacific is a storied brand. They’re renowned for quality. I certainly believe they have one of the better first and business class products. I enjoy their service (though it is unobtrusive – rather than effusive – in style). Their seats are excellent. I do not always think their food is very good, though at least in premium cabins it is fine.
I find their logo distinctive, and regardless of what you think of the current design it’s intertwined with the carrier and evokes positive images as a result. Cathay Pacific is refreshing their logo, and painting their planes. I believe only one Boeing 777-300ER has been painted so far.
A couple of weeks ago many readers took advantage of the deal of the year: business class roundtrips to Europe for as little as $450 cash out of pocket. Not even a mistake fare.
Struggling to figure out how this all makes sense, trends in the airline industry and the global economy provide some context. And also underscore some very important lessons for marketing to airline passengers.
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.
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 »
