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.
The seal on a $100 bottle of whiskey was “obviously cut” and one-third of the bottle was drained when it was collected at baggage claim. It didn’t spill. And it was packed by an industry professional. Who could have taken the precious Glenmorangie?
We’ve all experienced tipflation: an expectation that we tip more, and more often, than ever before. When you walk up to an iPad to pay for a purchase you know what’s coming next. You’re literally standing in line to pay for something you picked up from a shelf yourself, and you’re about to be asked to tip for it. How does this make sense?
And then you’re presented with choices, maybe 20%, 22% and 25%. When did tipping expectations go so high?
Everyday passenger behavior in lounges has gotten worse, from being draped over couches asleep (lounge couches aren’t nap rooms) to simply sticking bare feet up on the furniture. Would you do this at the home of an acquaintance – someone you know, but not well? Why do this in front of other passengers, and on furniture that doesn’t even belong to you? United Clubs don’t allow outside food, surely clubs can impose minimum standards like ‘no shirt, no shoes, no entry.’?
With current service pretty limited – a ‘light refresh’ generally just includes emptying trash, replacing towels, and making the bed without changing linens – there’s not much left to take away. Yet somehow the Hyatt Regency John Wayne Airport manages to pull farther on both levers – add steps to the request process, and perform even less service than a light refresh.
A Delta Air Lines passenger reported that they made it to Detroit on Friday, but couldn’t get the last mile home to Cincinnati. There were strong thunderstorms in the area in the evening and that was wreaking havoc with flights. Delta, though, didn’t blame weather and say there was nothing they can do. Instead they rebooked passengers on short-distance final segments using their partner Lyft.
In recent years, Delta has offered the worst customer service by phone with the longest hold times for customers, although of course all airlines have challenges. Fortunately there is a workaround for all of this!
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.
When airlines partner with third parties so that customers earn miles for transactions outside of travel, we normally think of the non-travel partner renting the frequent flyer program to help sell their product. The partner buys miles and is paying for the reward they give to customers, for access to the airline’s customers, and for use of the frequent flyer program’s intellectual property.
But there’s a benefit to the loyalty program beyond the direct revenue for the miles sold.
While 110 million Americans haven’t even played Microsoft’s flight simulator, apparently one third of Americans think they could take the controls of an aircraft and land it if they had to. For males the number is 50%.
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 »
