In the spring I wrote about scammers taking over an old Singapore Airlines phone number and pretending to be Singapore Airlines when customers call. The scammers charge high fees for basic services the airline would normally provide for free, like helping with seat assignments.
It turns out there’s another variation on this scam: the agency gets Google’s search results for the airline at a specific airport changed to display their phone number.
MGM’s relationship with Hyatt ends September 30. They were partners for 10 years, and MGM had recently groused about not seeing as much value as they could they could achieve from the partnership.
Now we know what they were working on as a replacement: Marriott Bonvoy members will earn and redeem points at 17 MGM resorts starting in October, and bookings of MGM properties will be available through Marriott channels by end of year.
Like American Express, Capital One is building out its own network of lounges. Chase has their lounges in partnership with Collinson Group, which owns The Club and Priority Pass. So far, though, there’s only one Capital One lounge – at Dallas – Fort Worth airport. That opened about a year and a half ago.
Fortunately we’re getting a better sense of what’s happening with future projects.
On the outbound we flew economy. There were no business seats available, and no extra legroom coach either. It was peak season and flights were full, as many flights within Australia have been since travel re-commenced.
For this flight we’d be in Virgin Australia business, which was about $100 more than economy for the three hour flight.
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Better hotels offer all sorts of amenities, and have been known to go above and beyond for guests. W Hotels have the ‘Whatever Whenever’ line, claiming they’ll get anything you need at any time (for a cost). But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hotel promote ‘farts’ as an amenity let alone offer them as an optional add-on for free?
ThanksAgain is a rewards program where you register your credit card, and it scans your transactions for eligible activity and offers you points – that can be converted into frequent flyer miles or gift cards.
It began years ago as a general retail rewards program. Many dry cleaners were included. Then nearly a decade ago they pivoted to being largely rewards for airport spend.
To borrow from Marx in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, hotel fees were introduced as tragedy but have proceeded to farce. Yet somehow I’ve come across one that actually still astonishes me.
A limited-service hotel’s self-serve continental breakfast had a tip jar beside the cereal tower, and even pre-seeded the jar with cash to imply that other guests are offering tips.
Buying seats that you do not intend to fly, to keep other people from buying them, creates actual harm to the airline (it prevents them from earning revenue). They won’t sit idly by. Consequences could be even greater.
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 »
