The Park Hyatt Dubai felt like a special property a decade ago. Now it’s in desperate need of renovation. The staff is still very good. Breakfast is still very good, but so busy that service couldn’t keep up.
Give A Mile’s Year-End Campaign To Raise United Airlines Miles Give A Mile’s Year-End Campaign To Raise Air Canada Points Regular readers may know that I joined the board of Give A Mile about a year ago. There aren’t enough opportunities to use miles to accomplish charitable objectives. Most are airline-selected corporate charities. Give A Mile is unique because they take donations of miles and actually use the miles to book flights for a really worthy cause: helping people to be together with loved ones in their last moments. The goal is that people shouldn’t die alone. This is a small organization with a strong cadre of volunteers. There’s not much overhead. There’s no marketing department. Just people committed to do some good using miles. I’ve given a lot of my own miles to the…
Shocking footage as a passenger lights up a cigarette inflight as though nobody was around, seemingly unaware that such a thing is frowned upon (let alone illegal in the United States).
A man is captured on video lighting up a cigarette at his seat, and proceeding to smoke. Another passenger across the aisle can’t believe his eyes, and presses the flight attendant call button.
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.
Despite the brevity of our visit, and not taking advantage of everything the hotel had to offer, I have to say that I loved my stay at the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi. The hotel still feels new and modern, service was excellent, and Globalist treatment unbeatable – from a confirmed suite upgrade and further upgrade, to complimentary breakfast via room service without so much as bringing a bill. I’d gladly return, in fact coming back for a longer stay is now top of mind.
On Sunday evening, a passenger on Southwest Airlines flight 3172 from New Orleans to Atlanta unexpectedly opened the over-wing emergency exit door while the aircraft was still at the gate. He proceeded to jump off the plane onto the tarmac. Then he tried to drive away in a service truck.
Inside the plane became chaotic. Passengers tried to fleet for their safety, with some believing the man had left a suspicious object on the plane before his dramatic exit.
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.
It was time to say goodbye to the Etihad First Apartment. I’d missed it so. The crew on this flight were absolutely outstanding. In addition to one of the most spacious hard products in the sky, the soft product was excellent. Food, service, internet, shower, I really couldn’t have asked for more.
In the end dressing nicely and whispering revenue management won’t get you first class, and neither will pretending to be a cocktail even though cocktails are free in first class.
Pollster Frank Luntz took to social media on Friday to decry a Qatar Airways for not recognizing Israel. For someone so politically savvy, that struck me as naive. The obvious answer here was that Qatar doesn’t recognize Israel. It would be more of a scandal for Israel to appear on the moving map of its state-sponsored airline than for it not to.
Yet this morning a Qatar jet flew from Doha to Israel. It had to make a technical stop in out of the way Cyprus in order to avoid operating the first non-stop between the two countries.
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 »
