News and notes from around the interweb: For a few days only you can get $100 off top quality luggage while benefiting charity at the same time. For God’s Sake Shut Up About Credit Cards and Airline Miles (HT: Barry P.) The author complains that talk of miles has replaced doing lines of cocaine off of fax machines for investment bankers. I’m at lunch with this consultant and this investment banker. One is a brilliant young man who aced his SATs and went to a well-regarded private university, somewhere like Duke, where he led the debate society, and tutored at-risk children, and helped build houses for the poor, and earned a 3.8 grade point average. And the other is just as brilliant, and he went to a college that’s just as prestigious, somewhere like Georgetown,…
And It Only Cost This Man $1668… (Worst Seat Mate EVER)
The details of what this passenger did are probably not safe for work. So before continuing, for those reading the story on the front page of my blog, I’ll require you to…
Airlines Can Do Better During Long Delays. Here’s How.
An Air France A380 stranded passengers in Manchester for nearly 7 hours. The New York – Paris flight carrying 460 people suffered a 4 hour de-icing delay on departure. As a result of the four hour delay, crew exceeded their maximum flying hours. This was a fact that Air France knew would happen prior to departure through simple math. If no one at the airline was paying attention, the crew themselves were certainly aware. And Manchester was 2 hours past allowable hours, but the final leg to Paris would have apparently been too far over. The aircraft touched down at 11:30 am (UK time) and that is where it happened. Six and a half hours on the grounded plane with reported no food or water. Air France had originally told passengers it would send a…
Delta Encouraging Their Elites to Act Like DYKWIAs Using a New Hashtag
In frequent flyer circles, probably the worst possible behavior — worse than anything you see from ‘the kettles’ (Ma and Pa Kettle who fly maybe once a year) or ‘gate lice’ (people who crowd the boarding lanes before their zone is called) are the ‘DYKWIAs’…usually elite passengers who think they’re entitled to whatever it is they want because they are so darned important. But I am a Diamond Guest! Often the ‘DYKWIA’ declares their elite status, or throws down their elite membership card, along with their tantrum. It seems that Delta is actually encouraging this, with their elite bag tags this year. They’ve even created a hash tag, #BragTag. #StayClassy
Another Star Alliance Frequent Flyer Program Expected to Launch!
Star Alliance carrier COPA is launching their own frequent flyer program this coming summer and exiting from United’s MileagePlus. But it appears they’re not the only Star Alliance airline that may leave a coalition program to strike out on their own. Now it appears that Brussels Airlines may go it alone, apart from Lufthansa’s Miles & More… at least based on this job posting. (HT: Delvind H.) Brussels Airlines will soon launch an innovative frequent flyer program (FFP). We are building a new loyalty competence centre and are looking for an entrepreneurial team that will successfully drive the development of this program. I don’t have a sense for what the program will look like, though as a European program I’d bet that it will add fuel surcharges onto the cost of award tickets though I…
United Worried About Safe Flying, Norwegian Flies Anyway, and Air India’s Flight Attendants Show Up Whenever They Want..
News and notes from around the interweb: United sent a Very Strongly Worded Letter to its pilots about safety. United will start serving real meals on its regional jets effective March 1. 4 members of the crew of a Norwegian flight headed from New York to Stockholm walked off, disagreeing with the captain that it was safe to fly in the snow. The flight landed in Stockholm without incident – though there’s some disagreement now as to whether there were the legally required minimum number of crew onboard for the flight. (HT: Alan H.) Thousands of Air India flights are delayed when crew members don’t bother to show up on time. A revolutionary new approach of docking the pay of crew that do this will be tested. More coverage of the investigation (including analysis by…
Marriott Plans to Start Expiring Points
As if it’s not enough that Marriott Rewards points will be worth less, Marriott has announced that points will expire after two years of account inactivity. These people seem so happy that their points can now expire! It’s been in the terms and conditions that Marriott points expire for years, as far back as I remember, but they’ve never actually done it. Now the terms say, “The Rewards Program will start enforcing this policy on February 1, 2016.” Those with lifetime elite status are exempt from this change. Here are the details: In fairness, Starwood, Hyatt, and Hilton points will expire after a period of inactivity. IHG Rewards Club points do not.
Malaysia Flight MH370 Was Hijacked By Vladimir Putin, Because Underpants Gnomes
There’s a New York Magazine piece suggesting that MH370 was hijacked and flown to Kazakhstan, likely to an air strip leased by Russia. All it requires to get there is assuming that data suggesting the plane went somewhere else must have been faked, and once you ignore it you can plot a path that could get you there. One of the commenters on my blog had learned that the compartment on 777s called the electronics-and-equipment bay, or E/E bay, can be accessed via a hatch in the front of the first-class cabin.15 If perpetrators got in there, a long shot, they would have access to equipment that could be used to change the BFO value of its satellite transmissions. They could even take over the flight controls. Once you learn that “there were three ethnically…
Marriott Rewards Whacks Members Again With Big Increase in Reward Prices
Most hotel programs assign individual hotels to ‘categories’ with a fixed number of points required to redeem the hotels in each category. And chains more or less adjust the hotels assigned to each category once a year. Starwood announced their hotel reward category changes several days ago. About the same number of hotels are getting more expensive as are getting less expensive, with increases concentrated in the U.S. Hyatt announced their changes in December with more hotels going down in price than going up. (Hilton of course no longer makes announcements about annual changes, they just post changes to a web page throughout the year. This is in the name of ‘transparency’. Hilton is also an anomaly in that there are huge point ranges for several of the categories, which makes category assignments almost meaningful…
When You Can — and When You Can’t — Earn Starpoints for Uber
I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Starwood and Uber announced a new partnership that lets you earn Starpoints for Uber rides. You earn 1 point per dollar spent; more (based on your status with SPG) when you using Uber on days you’re staying at a Starwood property. This earning is entirely separate from the points you earn from your credit card for the spend itself. That means you can earn 1 Starpoint per dollar…
