For years the Starwood American Express has had no annual fee the first year and $30 after that. They’ve now upped the post-first year fee to $45. I’ve just been billed my $30 fee in August, so I’m good for at least a year. And I don’t yet know whether existing cardmembers are being grandfathered in at the old amount or will be pushed up to $45 with their next renewal. (My guess is the latter, I just haven’t checked yet.) Still, the annual fee is lower than most reasonable points-earning cards, which frequently range from $60 – $85. So this is hardly reason to cancel. Presumably Amex realizes this. Meanwhile the Starwood American Express small business card is still first-year free and $30 thereafter. While this too may go up, perhaps they’ve left the…

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Kitty Bean Yancey reports that Ali Kasikci — who created an avalanche of rumors when he announced his departure as General Manager of the Peninsula Beverly Hills — will become the General Manager at the new Montage Beverly Hills (scheduled to open Fall 2008, my hunch is it’ll be a bit later). The Montage in Laguna Beach is already arguably the best resort in California, even the United States. So the company knows what it’s doing. And Kasikci ran the best hotel in Los Angeles for year. With a clean design slate there’s a tremendous potential here. There may be some opening jitters, of course, but this is a man and a company that I’d bet on.

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Tyler Cowen wants to know why airports don’t offer showers and other amenities (presumably for a fee) to ease the travel experience. He links to Megan McArdle’s answer (high cost of space) and offers his own (“Airports will sell goods which are complements” the attention of the wealty, “which is otherwise so hard to get.” although why isn’t advertising on planes even more prevalent such as on overhead bins?). Some of Tyler’s commenters have already pointed out, though, that desireable facilities often do exist. Take showers, for instance. Many airport lounges around the world provide them, as a benefit for very frequent flying or with paid membership. Several of these lounges also allow access by the day. The facilities offered, however, are not standard and airlines don’t do a particularly good job differentiating their product…

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