New $250 Minimum Charge: Hotels Are Killing Room Service, Slowly And Then All At Once

Dec 17 2023

People complain that room service is too expensive, sometimes takes too long, and isn’t always good. Many people think, do I really want a mediocre hotel’s mediocre food when I have the miracle of choice delivered at my fingertips?

But when the hotel isn’t providing an experience that’s differentiated from Airbnb, there goes their competitive advantage.

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Chase About To Pass American Express, Become Third Largest Travel Agency Behind Expedia, Booking.com

Dec 16 2023

Chase travel did $8 billion in sales in 2022 with 40% growth in number of customers purchasing travel through their portal. They have had public goals to hit $10 billion in sales this year and $15 billion in sales by 2025.

Chase Travel believes they’ll pass American Express and become the third largest travel agency within two years. Last year they were less than 8% behind.

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AARP Membership: The Best $12 Young People Now Spend

Dec 16 2023

I first joined AARP because of the discount their members get buying British Airways tickets. I’ve stacked the AARP and Chase discounts during BA sales to buy very cheap tickets, which I’ve then upgraded to first class using points. The hotel deals are great, too. And most people don’t realize you don’t need to be old to join.

The Wall Street Journal covers a trend in younger people joining AARP to take advantage of discounts, as effective methods of saving money become more focal in an era of inflation.

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Are Airlines Thinking About Seat Fees All Wrong?

Dec 16 2023

For years airlines ‘gave away the value of seat assignments for free’ to customers. That’s no longer true. And the tax code encourages airlines to charge for seats, too. That’s because base airfare for domestic flights is taxed at 7.5%, while fees aren’t covered by this excise tax. Airlines have an incentive to move money from the fare into fees.

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Breast Milk Battle on American Airlines As Gate Agent Leaves Mom In Tears

Dec 16 2023

An American Airlines passenger shared their ordeal boarding a flight with breast milk and being told they weren’t allowed to bring it on board, they’d have to ‘consolidate’ it into their carry on or give it up in order to fly.

The woman began crying and tried to show the agent her employer’s rules. Eventually she broke down, because the milk would spoil without being in the cooler packed with ice the way she was carrying it. She “squash[ed] some of it into [her] bag but couldn’t make it fit with the ice so most of it is unusable.”

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