When I stay with Hyatt, I regularly receive a survey after I’ve checked out. I rarely do with Marriott. I’ve just learned why: Marriott won’t send a survey to a guest that’s completed one within the past 60 days.
In what may be the strangest airline Catch-22 I’ve ever head, an American Airlines passenger can’t get a refund that they’re entitled to, because of an ongoing murder investigation. It’s almost like Joseph Heller is working the refunds department at an airline.
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.
Star Alliance member Asiana is offering free lounge access to all coach passengers transiting through Seoul for all of 2024. Anyone with an airport transit of less than 24 hours booking their flights through a travel agent can take advantage of access to a Plaza Premium lounge at the Incheon airport.
In late December United filed a “large development review” plan with the City of Denver. Yes they’re going to initially going to add 12 flight simulators for pilot training. They are also working on a new corporate campus that would support 5,000 employees, enough to move all the workers at the current Chicago Willis Tower headquarters.
There’s a legit fare sale from Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal. They’re mostly promoting good coach deals (like Chicago to Copenhagen from $379 roundtrip), but it turns out there are even better business class offers. And the fare deals allow Lisbon stopovers at no extra charge.
Delta SkyMiles suspended status matches in September and it was anticipated this was related to a revamp of the elite program.
Well, that became a debacle with Delta rolling out major changes and facing such a huge customer backlash that they partially and temporarily pulled those back. Now status matches are supposed to be returning this month.
Hertz is a very badly run company. They hired Palantir to help them because they cannot track their fleet of cars. They regularly think their cars have been stolen, and have reported them stolen, when they still had the cars and were renting them out. That got their customers arrested, sometimes at gunpoint, and then they’ve been unwilling to retract false police reports out of fear that the retractions would lead police to stop trusting their false reports.
When American lounges do get crowded they prioritize customers paying for membership, either directly or with their premium $595 annual fee credit card, and to customers traveling on qualifying business class tickets. They have an obligation to deliver for those customers before offering complimentary access to others.
Would making everyone – paid club members, long haul business class passengers, and complimentary military guests alike – stand outside in the terminal in a line during their layover be better?
Flight attendants on a December 20 QantasLink flight from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania wore Palestinian flag pins. One (non-Jewish) passenger reported feeling “incredibly uncomfortable.”
A crewmember who was photographed with the pin inflight, and whose photo has gone viral, has vowed to “fight against” this passenger.
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 »
