Last month I broke the news that Southwest Airlines would start selling overnight connection flights for the first time. The plan was initially to launch this on June 26, but it was delayed. The airline has a new date this time: Wednesday, July 19th.
A passenger at New York JFK airport shared that they were charged $7.66 for a single bottle of water on Thursday at the ‘Downtown Market’ store near the airport’s gate two inside terminal 1, which houses mainly the international airline partners of Delta-led SkyTeam and United-led Star Alliance. The payment tablet at the store asks the customer to tip on top of this.
At the end of last year, I shared a guest post by a reader who racked up 250 nights with chain hotel programs in 2022. It was helpful to see his perspective on the best hotel program for someone who often stays in small towns without full-service hotels, so the footprint of a hotel chain matters – not just its benefits.
Halfway through 2023 this anonymous contributor shared an update. His travel has slowed down this year and he doesn’t expect to log more than 150 nights on the road. He gave up on Hyatt, which doesn’t have enough self-managed full-service hotels where he travels, and maybe he regrets it?
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.
Since a majority of miles are earned via credit card, and American’s U.S. co-brands earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent, a lot of status is being generated by credit card.
And that means not just more people earning status overall than before, but different people earning status.
Two Delta passengers, one with the lowest level of status (Silver), were heading off on their honeymoon. They were flying Detroit to San Juan back in February where they’d pick up a cruise the following day. But right after their flight took off, the bride realized she left her passport at home. That would mean no cruise, since it would head to international destinations and she wouldn’t be permitted to board. There was no way to get the passport in time, they thought.
The update to the premium Citi AAdvantage Executive product which goes into effect July 23 seems like a step backwards for consumers. But it’s a step backwards for Citibank, also.
Sometime over the past day, the Rocketmiles hotel booking website has seen it’s AAdvantage mileage-earning chopped by several orders of magnitude. Hotels that might earn 10,000 or more miles (and status-qualifying Loyalty Points) per night are now earning 200 or 300 miles. This is a strange development, but it does not appear to be a mistake.
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.
Airports and planes seem to bring out the worst in people. A small percentage of passengers lose their cool. Police wind up getting involved.
It’s rare to see police being called on an airline’s gate agents, but that’s just what happened over the weekend in Baltimore when journalist Seth Kaplan and his family were set to fly Air Canada to Toronto.
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 »
