An already-boarded Delta Air Lines flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to New York JFK was cancelled on Friday when the 61 year old captain was arrested on charges stemming from intoxication either with alcohol or drugs.
Now that Marriott is varying the points price of a room constantly, and no longer has an award chart (or even a commitment to cap their redemption rates), they’re also changing how hotels get paid for member stays when redeeming points.
We got to Cairns safely, only about 25 minutes late, so the trip was fine – just a lot more like Spirit before Spirit improved than the last time I flew Virgin Australia in economy.
The Biden administration’s Department of Transportation has spent a lot of time jawboning airlines into committing to put passengers up in hotels when faced with overnight delays that are the airline’s fault, such as mechanical issues or lack of crew.
However there’s no minimum standard for what ‘counts’ as a hotel that the airline must provide, as this Delta Air Lines passenger shows after their flight was cancelled and they were put up in a Motel 6 with dirty bath towels and a peeling ceiling.
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One man in Malaga wasn’t going to let his fate be determined by a gate agent. His flight was departing. It was pushing back from the jet bridge. I guess he doesn’t realize that they close the door to the aircraft before doing that? Because he somehow thinks that maybe he’ll be able to jump from the jetway onto the aircraft if he makes it just in time as it pulls back…
Marriott does not appear to be compliant with its legal settlements, and since they are falsely telling guests who book redemption stays that the resort fee is included in the points price at first instance, prior to disclosing a fee, that price should be honored – guests who are paying resort fees where this disclosure is made should seek a refund.
The American Airlines flight attendants union is in contract negotiations and is proposing to make schedules and quality of life worse for all crewmembers hired after the contract is signed.
If adopted, the union’s proposal would require new employees to sit on ‘standby’ to pick up trips for three years, effectively making them work in service of better schedules for all existing flight attendants.
An American Airlines passenger wasn’t allowed to board his flight from Austin to New York JFK because he was filming a gate agent that he thought was rude. The agent didn’t like him filming and called for a supervisor, who refused to allow him to take the flight. They deemed filming employees to violate the airline’s rules – though these are secret rules which do not appear published anywhere that customers can see them.
Police were called, the officer confirmed the passenger wasn’t breaking the law, but they still weren’t allowed to board.
When Marriott Bonvoy members stay 50 nights or more in a year, they can select a benefit of their choice, and then again when they reach 75 nights. The most popular choice, by far, is “suite night awards.” 75% of Marriott’s most frequent guests select the ability to request priority for upgrades to suites. They can choose the nights where they want their upgrades to be ahead of other guests checking in. Beginning 5 days prior to arrival, Marriott will search available room inventory to process their upgrades. However actually using these ‘Suite Night Awards’ is a huge pain point for frequent guests. If members spread out their upgrade requests evenly across the year and across all hotels, they would probably all be confirmed! But very few people want to upgrade at a Sheraton in…
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 »
