The airline didn’t just offer the status challenge, what they’re highlighting as unique is that they actually had a communications plan with members who registered to get more information from the customers in exchange for 500 miles (where they want to travel) and then followed up marketing destinations to those members.
American Airlines flight 4837 from Indianapolis to Chicago rejected takeoff on Saturday morning when smoke was reported in the cabin. The Republic Airways Embraer ERJ175 was accelerating on runway 5L at the time.
Some of the 67 passengers on board were “crying and kind of screaming and you could see people praying,” according to one man on the flight, after they “started seeing smoke coming from the cabin door and smelled something burning.”
United Airlines probably does the best job of making additional award space available to elite members (even Silver) along with cobrand credit card customers. That extra inventory is real.
What a lot of American AAdvantage members don’t realize is that Executive Platinum (and Concierge Key) members also have extra award availability.
Newer The Club lounges are so much nicer than what you used to expect from the brand. The airport lounges from Airport Dimensions, which is owned by the same parent company as Priority Pass, has been offering better-designed spaces and even more food and drink options. And in the Covid era they’ve had table service replace buffets and it’s a nice experience.
The Club at MSY is a gorgeous space, and Charleston, South Carolina’s The Club is excellent as well.
It seems to me that it is one thing to save a seat or even a row, and other thing entirely to save multiple rows. Still it is not against Southwest’s rules. I’m not sure how a passenger trying to save a row behind them would block a passenger from sitting there, but social custom seems to make it a plausible strategy.
Is saving multiple rows of seats going overboard? Would you honor someone’s claim that they’re saving seats in a row they aren’t physically in?
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There are some very cool packages but whether they make sense comes down to pricing. A limited quantity offer for a limited period promoted as a monthly event could certainly be good.
I spent an April long weekend in Charleston. Hyatt has a partnership with SLH Hotels that allow you to redeem points and earn elite nights and points for stays, which made it possible for me to stay at Wentworth Mansion. The hotel is charming. The service was impeccable. And it represented good value on points.
Perhaps the room just isn’t used very much and doesn’t get a lot of attention. Or perhaps they only assign it as an upgrade on one night stays, and it’s rarely paid for (or hasn’t been in a long time), and so on one night stays no one bothers to complain – they’re leaving anyway. So without guests letting the hotel know about maintenance issues, those issues don’t get addressed.
I fell victim to this myself – I didn’t stop at the desk on the way out, so didn’t complain about the condition of the room.
American Airlines says their corporate purpose is “caring for people on life’s journey.” Now, that sounds like the mission statement for an assisted living facility. But it is a reminder that each of the 2.3 million passengers carried on that airline over Memorial weekend alone isn’t just a ticket number or a seat assignment.
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 »
