Starting this Friday, March 1 you must be an AAdvantage member to take advantage of free standby. So that’s a new restriction on standby, though of course people can join the program at the airport.
What wasn’t previously announced, though, but American is now telling customers is that they won’t be able to get added to the standby list by a customer service agent or gate agent. Standby requests will be self-serve only.
Soon customer service agents will be displaced en masse by chatbots, but not the kind you’re used to. AI-powered customer service agents will handle the bulk of requests.
Some businesses, including airlines, will promote human customer service as a premium experience (although eventually, perhaps, AI will be better – but at least initially this will be seen as a premium). And perhaps we’ll see airlines offering live human telephone service as an elite benefit.
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.
Wendy’s is trending because of their plan to raise prices at peak periods, like the lunch rush, in a plan that’s been likened to Uber’s surge pricing. When demand for burgers is high, Baconators get more expensive.
According to one study, 28.3% of major U.S. airports feature a Wendy’s. And a reader asked me whether Wendy’s surge pricing would roll out to airport locations?
ANA Mileage Club has announced an award chart devaluation effective with bookings made starting April 18, 2024. It’s been a decade since they made any changes to award prices, which is why the program’s awards have cost so many fewer miles than competitors.
A Delta Air Lines pilot came into the cabin of a delayed flight to Atlanta to let everyone know that he expected to make up time inflight – and get everyone to their destination on time – but that he had some instructions everyone was going to follow along the way.
While we’re seeing 3-to-1 category increases (seems bad!) it’s interesting that these are very different from similar clusters of increases in the past.
Previously we’ve seen a lot of high end hotels become more expensive as redemptions. This time we’re seeing lower category hotels go up the most. The bulk of the action with these changes are in the bottom half of the chart’s distribution. The biggest grouping of changes is category 3 hotels becoming 4’s, while we also see 1’s become 2’s and 2’s become 3’s.
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.
Marriott has their booking platform for short-term rental stays. They rebate part of the commission they’re generating in the form of points and elite credit. Hyatt is getting into this game as well.
Capital One now has an interesting play in the space. You can already redeem Capital One Venture and Venture X (and equivalent business card) points to pay for short-term rental stays (such as Airbnb). But they’ve got their own STR ‘collections’ now that come with enhanced earning and benefits.
A British Airways manager has reportedly fled to India following allegations that he orchestrated a $3.8 million immigration fraud, leveraging the airline’s check-in systems to facilitate illegal travel and allowing passengers to claim asylum in Canada when they weren’t eligible to fly there in the first place.
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 »
