Hotels have been on a mission to cut back on housekeeping costs. They don’t want to do full cleans of every room every day. They’ll make you request it (and sometimes fill out paperwork) so that there are fewer rooms to clean, and they can hire fewer housekeepers who don’t work as many hours.
And hotel owners are pushing tips for housekeepers so they don’t have to pay the housekeeper as much.
While American Airlines hasn’t made changes to its partner award pricing – yet, they’re warning they will! – those awards, which are the best part of the AAdvantage program, have become far less valuable. Almost across the board their partners have been restricting the ability of AAdvantage members to redeem their miles.
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.
American Airlines is working on an order for new planes. However it may not just be for narrowbody planes as I and others have reported.
There’s discussion of a widebody order potentially as well – even for the Airbus A350 as a replacement for aging Boeing 777-200s. An announcement, at least for new smaller planes, may come as soon as March 4 which is the airline’s upcoming Investor Day.
A passenger shared to Reddit his experience at the Delta Air Lines Sky Club at New York LaGuardia where kids had run amok. These lounges have become far more expensive. The airline bans basic economy passengers from entering and even their own elite passengers in economy who are flying internationally, to cut down on crowding. Maybe they should impose age restrictions, too?
After flying from Austin to Amsterdam for the last week of holiday break and spending six nights at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam last month, it was time to head home.
Major U.S. airlines ran to the government to try to quash competition and a better inflight product option for passengers. Their first attempt, with the Department of Transportation, may not be working. But their next play with TSA can be done in secret and stands a better chance.
It is time to end differential tax treatment for airfares versus fees, since that creates a perverse incentive to shift customer spending from fares into fees. Any politician who rails against airline fees without addressing the role they have in legislating the tax code is unserious.
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.
There’s been a tremendous increase in interest in Brisbane, a major Australian city near the Gold Coast. About a year and a half ago, United Airlines launched a non-stop from San Francisco – and then in the past two weeks we got announcements of new Brisbane service from both American Airlines (Dallas) and Delta (Los Angeles). That will mean a huge increase in seats between the U.S. and Brisbane. Competition is going to get bloody. How can this make sense?
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 »
