Hyatt Loses Tax Court Ruling With Huge Implications For Loyalty Programs, IRS Sought To Tax $250 Million

by Gary Leff

hyatt hotel
Oct 03 2023

The IRS audited Hyatt for the tax years 2009 – 2011 and found that it wasn’t paying tax on loyalty program revenue. It didn’t include the revenue received for what was then Gold Passport (now World of Hyatt) in income, and didn’t include payments from the program as expenses. It just ignored the program, even though it collected money and invested it earning a return.

The IRS wanted Hyatt to not only pay up for those years but to go all the way back to the beginning of the program in 1987, with a quarter of a billion dollars of income at issue and a tax deficiency of $65 million.

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DFW Airport’s Renovations Start To Take Shape With Renderings Of New Terminal

by Gary Leff

airport
Oct 02 2023

Four years ago American Airlines and Dallas – Fort Worth airport came to agreement on terminal improvements that included piecemealing a new terminal F and refreshing terminal C for about $3.5 billion. This was put off during the pandemic.

Now it’s moving forward and renderings are available. They look great, and offer more detail around what the airport has planned.

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Passenger Throws $6,000 On The Tarmac After Refusing To Pay For Upgrade

by Gary Leff

Oct 02 2023

Saturday night’s EVA Air flight BR68 from London Heathrow to Bangkok diverted to Vienna after a woman self-upgraded from economy to premium economy and ‘refused to pay for the upgrade’ while her booze-influenced partner wouldn’t stop smoking and became abusive to crew. He was tackled and taped to his seat.

The flight diverted, and they were taken off. The woman threw £5,000 (US$6,000) at the man. It blew off in the wind.

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Delta’s SkyMiles Problem Is Short-Term Greed

by Gary Leff

Oct 02 2023

Delta wants us to believe that they are just trying to solve a problem – that there are too many elites for the benefits available like upgrades and club access. They have no choice! Victims of their own success!

The truth is that planned Delta changes weren’t about scarcity of benefits or too many Diamonds. It was all about squeezing customers for more American Express spend because Delta is trying to move from $7 billion in revenue from American Express to $10 billion. But they went too far.

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Amex $25 Rebate On Restaurant Spend For All Cardmembers (Earn Twice)

by Gary Leff

Oct 02 2023

American Express is bringing back Member Week for October 9 through 13. There’s one offer that really stands out to me – all Amex personal, business and corporate cardmembers can register to receive a $25 statement credit on $75 spend at over 200 participating Resy restaurants by December 8, 2023, and this can be earned twice (for a total of $50 back).

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Back From Rehab, Pro Wrestler Gets Drunk During Flight Delay, Demands Passengers Fly Delayed Plane

by Gary Leff

Oct 01 2023

Recently out of rehab, he reportedly threw back too many drinks during a delay of his flight from New York JFK to Orlando. He started interrogating other passengers about what was happening, grabbed the gate’s microphone and shouted, asking when the plane would take off – and then he demanded to know if other flyers in the gate area could pilot the plane?

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More Hyatt Hotels Are Ignoring Elite Breakfast Benefit Rules, And Getting Away With It

by Gary Leff

Oct 01 2023

A chain’s most valuable customers are its elite members, who deliver an outsized portion of room nights to hotels. To entice them, they’re promised benefits like upgrades and free breakfast.

Knowing that hotels are going to try to cheat, Hyatt spells out in its terms and conditions what the breakfast benefit is for Globalist members when no club lounge breakfast is offered.

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