News and notes from around the interweb: The Official Position of American’s Pilot Union: they don’t like their new uniforms. IHG is running a 30% off paid rates flash sale for Mexico for bookings through Sunday and stays through June 15. Emirates further restricting chauffeur service for premium cabin customers. Apparently Qantas codeshares no longer get car service. Man mailed himself to Australia Uber signup bonus of 2 free rides up to $15 each (versus the usual 1 ride up to $20). The guy who earned the most points ever in a single transaction has learned to use them (HT: Alan H.) What does it cost an airline to cancel a flight?
American and US Airways to Combine Programs Within 30 Days, Plus More Answers (Million Mile Status etc)
Following yesterday’s communication from the US Airways side that Dividend Miles would be folded into American AAdvantage in April, American is out today with more information. The programs will be combined ‘within 30 days’
Would You Help the Homeless You Meet in Mumbai or New York LaGuardia?
We already know that homeless live in Frankfurt airport. And they used to live at the Radisson JFK. Of course, actual homeless shelters are even on TripAdvisor. I’ll often do quite a bit of eating, trying a great variety, on my travels abroad. The goal there is to experience lots of things not to fill myself up. I won’t finish everything. That’s rather striking in, say, Mumbai where there are so many street kids. They’re out there because begging is effective, and the most effective children aren’t just persistent but visibly disabled. I don’t really want to give money, that probably doesn’t benefit the kids as much as their handlers (though they could well have a quota..) but I will certainly give leftovers. That way I figure they’re more likely to actually eat than if…
What Do People Complain to the DOT About? These 10 Government Complaints are Awesome!
I’ve had terrible customer service, awful flight delays, cancelled flights. Things happen in travel. I try to let it go, and appreciate what Louis C.K. reminds us is “the miracle of human flight.” I have never submitted a complaint to the Department of Transportation. (Nor have I ever complained to the federal government about credit card marketing.) Have you? I’ve often wondered what it would take to cause me to escalate an issue, make it federal. Reader Paul H. points me to this piece on complaints filed with the DOT, based on a FOIA request for submissions referencing customer service and discrimination during a two month period in 2014. Here are some truly special highlights…
Get 1000 Free Hilton Points Just for Updating Your Password! (They Promise..!)
United, American, and Hilton all suffered recent data breaches. Indeed, Hilton points have been among the most available for sale on the DarkNet. Starwood was hacked, too. Hilton accounts have long used 4-digit PIN numbers. That’s not a lot of unique combinations, and Hilton has decided that’s not secure enough. Three weeks ago Hilton reached out yesterday to let me know that they’re moving to passwords.. At the time they offered 1000 points to get you to update your password. But their IT wasn’t ready for their announced changes. And they followed up with a hold off. Indeed, about a week ago I checked in and they let me know they were still working on things. Well, apparently they’re ready to go. HHonors members will need to update their passwords by April 1. As of…
Virgin America Offering 2-for-1 Flights (It’s Like a Dallas Companion Pass, Without the Work)
Airline seats are mostly sold as commodity products. The genius of frequent flyer programs has been to take what is essentially an interchangeable thing — a seat one from city to another connecting in a third city — and create differentiation and brand loyalty. What hasn’t historically worked in the US market is to offer a better value proposition. Certainly it hasn’t earned a price premium. American had ‘More Room Throughout Coach’ but they put seats back into their planes because customers weren’t choosing them over competitors. People choose, for the most part, on price and schedule. It’s interesting that Virgin America is taking a different tack — they aren’t advertising that they’re more expensive but worth it. They’re advertising that you pay the same and get more. They’re promoting travel out of the Dallas…
US Airways Card Should Be Around for One More Month
US Airways announced that their miles would be combined into the American AAdvantage program next month. We’ve long known that the US Airways co-brand credit card would stop taking applications when the US AIrways and American programs combine. I’ve seen speculation on several sites recently that this week would be the last chance to apply for the US Airways credit card. I was surprised by that, since I hadn’t heard it myself and since I’d expect Barclays to want to acquire new cardmembers up until the last moment. @MattEnder received a solicitation for the card with a deadline of April 12. That’s consistent with our previous understanding of Barclays taking applications until the merger of programs actually happens (or more likely up until when US Airways partially freezes its data for the migration, perhaps no…
US Airways Miles to Be Merged into American AAdvantage Next Month!
I haven’t received my US Airways Dividend Miles e-statement for March yet, but Loyalty Lobby received his and notes the following paragraph: Next month, we’ll reach the next milestone on our path to integration by bringing Dividend Miles into the American Airlines AAdvantage® program. We’ll transfer your mileage balance and elite-qualifying activity into your new (or existing) AAdvantage account. When the 2015 program and details of how the US Airways and American programs would be combined were released in October, we were told the combination would happen during the second quarter of 2015. At the time I wrote, They haven’t set a target date, and there’s lots of IT work to do, but they sounded optimistic to me about hitting their deadlines on the early, rather than late, side of the calendar. Throughout I’ve been…
The Best Airlines and Airports… and the Worst. Plus Starwood Hotels You Didn’t Know Changed Rewards Category
News and notes from around the interweb: Even ‘Airlines 4 America’ the airline industry lobby group is unwilling to sign onto the United/Delta/American complaint about the three large Gulf airlines. Nate Silver takes his statistical prowess to airline schedules and performance. He finds that US Airways, Alaska, and Virgin America are operationally better than Delta (which is of course better than United and American), and that the New York area airports and Chicago O’Hare are unsurprisingly quite awful. Some Starwood hotels changed categories — or didn’t — this week contrary to what had previously been announced. Ryanair to fly to Spain’s ‘Ghost Airport’ Promo code USMRIOT takes 20% off Dallas-originating and 15% off other US-originating itineraries on Emirates for booking through March 31 and travel through May 15. (HT: S.) Video of slides deploying on…
TSA Arrests Man for Too Many Credit Cards
The TSA has never caught a terrorist. But they’ve nabbed their first card churner going through a checkpoint in Fort Lauderdale prior to boarding a Delta flight for New York. During a physical search of the bag, a security screener discovered four stacks of credit cards hidden inside four different sneakers on the bag’s bottom, the report said. The screener also noticed several credit cards were blank. The Broward Sheriff’s Office responded and found 136 blank credit cards displaying logos of various banks, and 62 credit cards with two different listed account holders and various account numbers, the report said. At first the man claimed “no knowledge of how the credit cards were in his duffel bag” (the ‘Shaggy defense‘). Then he claimed a cousin he couldn’t identify paid him $200 to bring the cards…
