There may be no more important story about the future of true luxury travel this summer than the epic struggle for control of Aman Resorts. Fortune goes in-depth into the ultra-luxury chain’s dirty laundry. I’ve never stayed at an Aman Resort. I have wanted to for many years, but I probably never will. There’s no points program. I can’t use my miles (other than credit card points that buy any travel at about a penny a point, but that’s not a good value here). They’re simply too much money, I’d never be comfortable spending $1000 a night on a room. I’ve never spent half that (though I’ve come kind of sort of close to half using points redeemed for stay certificates used for a buy up on an award night, hah). Nonetheless, they do appear…
Secrets of Three Letter Airport Codes Revealed
That’s a Daily Mail piece that Alan H. forwards to me. There are three letter airport codes that match the first three letters of their city name, like SYD for Sydney and MEL for Melbourne, Australia. They don’t get to use the first three letters for Detroit Metropolitan Airport, since DET is actually the old Detroit City Airport (now named ‘Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport’ and without scheduled commercial service). New York’s JFK airport is JFK, LaGuardia takes three letters from its name, and Hong Kong (HKG) does as well. Denver gets DEN but many mistakenly or colloquially refer to it as ‘DIA’. What the article taught me that I didn’t actually know: Early airports used two letter codes based on weather stations, and those legacy airports get an ‘X’ (hence LAX, SUX). Canadian airports…
Buying Your Airline Tickets Outside the U.S. to Save Money
Reader Andy G. passes along this article that talks about how you can ‘buy airline tickets international’ — getting the best deal on airfare based on the country in which tickets are purchased. I think it overstates the case a bit (“once I was in Bangkok, that same flight that was once $300 would fall to $30 almost inexplicably”), but it’s worth understanding what ‘point of sale’ means for airfare purchases. It’s often cheaper to buy tickets “in-country” in South America and in Asia than it is to buy those same tickets abroad. The same phenomenon is true for buying train tickets in Europe versus online in English.
UH OH: Here’s How Your Business Travel Expense Reimbursements Could Put You On the Evening News
Barbara DeLollis flags a story about a “point scheme” that “came at taxpayers’ expense.” A county employee in Santa Clara, California supposedly defrauded the local government by… [Using] his personal credit card to pay for his travel expenses as well as the expenses of employees, all of whom are supposed to use a county credit card. In some cases, he would use his credit card to pay their expenses when he was not traveling with them. He’d get reimbursed for the expenses – and allegedly keep the points.. Wait. Say what..?
Free China Visa Processing This Month
Free China Visa: Through the end of the month Allied Passport & Visa is offering to process China visas for free and to discount other services for readers of this blog. Several folks have used their service now, and I’ve gotten universally good feedback. Here’s one email from a reader, Susan. My husband and I are traveling to China later this month to visit our daughter, and when I read about Allied’s offer to process China visas free for readers of View from the Wing, I just had to give it a try. I was concerned that Allied would not be able to process an application from someone in Colorado, so I emailed the company before sending in our apps to be sure they could handle the request. I received a reply the next morning…
The New IHG Free Night Promo Is the Most Generous and Game-able We’ve Seen in Five Years. Here’s How to Play It.
IHG Rewards Free Night Promo: Here’s how it works and why you’ll want to play Earlier in the week I wrote that IHG Rewards – the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands – would be bringing back their fun, complicated, and rewarding “Big Win” promotion for the fall under a new name. IHG’s Into the Nights Promotion turns out to be easier and more rewarding than past versions. Registration is required and the promotion period runs through the end of the year. Different members get different offers. Generally unengaged, irregular guests with the chain get easy offers and regular guests get tougher offers. (Members opening a new account seem to get the easiest offers.)
American Express Eliminated Online Message Customer Support
I like doing customer service with credit card companies online, in writing. I don’t like calling. I don’t really like the phone anyway, it’s more of an intrusion. I prefer to compose my thoughts clearly and crisply, and not have to wait in real-time for the company to respond, to transfer me around, to re-explain things. I like a written record of the company’s response. That way if they don’t deliver, I can refer them back to their commitment. They get to record phone calls, it’s not nearly as convenient for me to do so. Unfortunately American Express has gotten rid of their online email customer support leaving chat as the online option. The online ‘secure message center’ – where you log into your account and send an electronic message – is gone. This isn’t…
Is British Airways Going to Move to a Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Program?
Earlier I wrote about whether American appears to be taking the best approach in integrating airlines first as part of its merger with US Airways and only then evaluating whether to make a shift similar to United and Delta in terms of awarding miles on the basis of money spent on tickets rather than miles flown. In making the case that American should be moving quickly on IT investments (that he suggests would be in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars!), he suggests that American needs to do this to keep up with joint business venture partner British Airways. If anyone reading this were CEO for the day would you not have the topic on your plate right now? Or would you rather in two years, when you decide to move to a…
Andaz Maui Decides They Don’t Like Freeloading Diamond Members Anymore
Mommy Points let me know that the Andaz Maui breakfast — that I raved about just six weeks ago — has tightened up their benefit for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members. They’ve created a new, lower level buffet (the “Ka’ana Pantry” rather than full buffet) which they allow Diamonds to supplement with an entree and side off of the menu. Andaz Maui Had One of the Best Breakfast Offerings in Hyatt, the Chain With the Best Breakfast Benefit Hyatt offers the most generous top tier breakfast benefit — full, not continental, breakfast in hotels without a club lounge offering. I rate the Andaz Maui’s breakfast a notch behind the Park Hyatt Hadahaa in the Maldives (better setting), Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris (more refined, and room service option), and Andaz 5th Avenue (room service). It’s…
Why American Has Its Frequent Flyer and IT Priorities Right (and Randy Petersen is Wrong)
Doug Parker said that American AAdvantage wouldn’t be going revenue-based at this point, that their key metric is combining the AAdvantage program with Dividend Miles, and that once they accomplish that they’ll evaluate what’s next. In his opening remarks to the September issue of Inside Flyer, Randy Petersen seems to push for a revenue-based program now. He asks, Really? How could the topic not even be on the plate right now? Let’s see, the change in both the Southwest Rapid Rewards and Delta SkyMiles programs reportedly cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in technology changes to cconvert to revenue-based programs – and both were delayed upwards of two years because of technical hurdles associated with the change – and the topic is not on the table at American? … I…
