Marriott Now Charges Up To 150,000 Points Per Night For Award Stays

by Gary Leff

Mar 25 2023

When Marriott launched the Bonvoy program in 2018 the most expensive redemption for any hotel was 60,000 points. Then they introduced ‘high and low season’ pricing and a new more expensive category 8, pushing up the most expensive reward to 100,000 points.

A year ago they abolished award charts altogether and promised only that price increases would be muted in the first year of the new system. Now that the first year has passed, gloves and constraints are off, and properties can cost up to 150,000 points per night.

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Wide Open Award Space For The Etihad A380 First Apartment Starting In July

by Gary Leff

Mar 25 2023

Etihad’s Airbus A380 is returning to the skies, and with it their “First Apartment” which are among the most impressive inflight suites in the world. And award space is currently wide open on the London Heathrow – Abu Dhabi route with as many as 9 award seats per flight in some cases (book the whole cabin), and up to two daily flights on the aircraft.

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71 Year Old Deaf Passenger Has Arm Broken By Police During Austin Airport Layover

by Gary Leff

Mar 24 2023

A 71 year old deaf Florida woman was connecting in Austin enroute to Seattle. She was a nervous flyer traveling alone for the first time in her life. Her hearing aid wasn’t working well, and wound up spending 3 days in jail and having her arm broken by police after she was unable to hear instructions from a gate agent – and asked twice to get on an earlier flight.

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Why Is United Airlines Tricking Customers Into Paying For Basic Consumer Protections That Are Free?

by Gary Leff

Mar 24 2023

It’s especially galling to see United Airlines selling the option to receive a refund when they cancel a flight during the booking process on their website. A customer is entitled to a refund when United cancels their flight for any reason however United makes it appear that this is not the case when a flight is cancelled due to weather, unless the customer pays extra.

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The Lie Hotels Tell To Reduce Housekeeping Costs

by Gary Leff

Mar 24 2023

Early in the pandemic there was concern about people entering hotel rooms. If you were traveling you either weren’t concerned about Covid-19, or you wanted to isolate yourself as much as possible from others.

Hotels stick with the line that guests want choice in whether or not to have daily servicing of their room, so they ask guests to request it if they want it.

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Passenger Bites Cops After Being Removed From Flight In Miami

by Gary Leff

Mar 24 2023

Video shows her threatening assault at another passenger, as well as a woman who was trying to de-escalate things. It’s not clear though what triggered the incident.

When she told she was being arrested she resisted – scratching and hitting officers – and was eventually carried off the aircraft anyway. She dug her fingernails into one police officer’s arm. She kicked and “nearly” knocked an officer down a flight of stairs as police tried to put her in leg restraints.

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