Southwest Airlines is out with a double elite qualifying offer on paid tickets, allowing award travel to count towards status as well, and pairing it with increased status-earning from spend on a Southwest Airlines credit card all between March 1 and May 31, 2023.
Hyatt has announced its annual redemption category changes which will go into effect March 28 at 8 a.m. Central time. Overall 372 properties are changing category, with 214 going up and 158 going down.
Overall U.S. hotels are going up, while Europe and Asia should get less expensive. In general the best and most luxurious hotels are going up, even in regions where redemption categories are falling generally. And all-inclusives get more expensive.
Traditionally a pilot at a regional airline might start out earning less than $50,000 per year, but get hired on by a major airline and that goes up quickly into the six figures, and well over $300,000 for senior captains flying widebody aircraft overseas. Some earn over $400,000.
Yet we’ve heard a lot of complaining by pilots recently. Contracts are open for negotiation at American Airlines, Southwest, and United.
Capital One transfers to Virgin miles will receive a 30% bonus during the month of March. This applies to transfers for Venture X, Venture, VentureOne, Venture X Business and Spark Miles cardholders.
The DoorDash Rewards Mastercard has just launched, and is available for applications. It’s a no annual fee cash back card, where you’ll want to consider it for bonus earning categories and benefits but not for everyday spend.
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.
With the window shutting to earn status for the new year closing on Tuesday night, customers were calling in. This is a new system (Loyalty Points) and a new cutoff (February 28, not December 31). And telephone hold times became excruciating, as numerous customers shared to social media. Wait times stretched in some cases over 5 hours.
Around 2 a.m. this morning a man stole a bus from American Airlines at New York JFK and drove it around New York. The bus had been left running, and there were no passengers on board at the time.
American Airlines became the first U.S. airline to offer a guarantee that families could sit together, by writing it into its customer service plan. That’s a commitment which is enforceable by the Department of Transportation.
Conservative groups have targeted American Airlines over its push for diversity hiring and that’s… a little weird?
The publicity is actually good for American Airlines, burnishing its credentials with a group like the NAACP which had previously issued a travel warning against the company. And it’s odd for conservatives who used to believe that companies should be free to hire as they wish.
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 »
