Thank you so much for your help! Over the weekend I asked for help raising United miles for Give A Mile, which uses donated miles to help people spend the last days of life with a loved one. I offered a match for donations.
Over the course of that match, the Give A Mile campaign went from having raised 218,000 miles to 600,000 miles on its quest to raise one million miles. That’s incredibly generous. There’s still two weeks left to help them reach their goal.
I’d have been fine with the reservations being cancelled within a few days of bookings, and not several weeks after those reservations have been made. Simply cancelling reservations after this much time without further accommodation is unacceptable. At a minimum offer a discount rate at the hotel for a standard room or suite, or some points by way of apology – and find a way to address costs that customers are actually incurring as a result of the property’s long wait to decide to cancel the bookings.
In addition to a biggest-ever bonus there are changes to the card’s earning, and benefits – including to the $99+tax annual companion pass.
The discount applies only to base fare and Frontier pricing is mostly about taxes and fees, including mandatory booking fees. So you may not be saving as much as you think in percentage terms. Fronter base fares aren’t most of the cost of a ticket, after all.
But this is a very good deal indeed for those with status, including those who took advantage of status matches and who have free Frontier status (and likely won’t pay add-on fees as a result).
Hotels really stretch to list amenities of value that are included in their resort fee, like the Hyatt which claimed it gave you access to the bathroom mirror or the Hilton which included use of the in-room TV.
These backflips are disingenuous at best. So it’s refreshing when a hotel is honest that the resort fee is nothing but an add-on, and provides literally no value to the guest.
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.
While United Airlines made elite status easier to earn in 2022 they’re returning to their harder revenue-based spend requirements for 2023, while giving existing elite frequent flyers a small head start towards status, allowing award travel on United to count towards status, and increasing the credit members can earn by spending on United co-brand credit cards.
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.
There’s no brand that’s been tarnished as much in Australia over the past year as Qantas. They don’t have enough seats to meet demand, and their operations have been awful as they’ve returned to international service. Stories are rampant of passengers with cancelled flights, where the airline stranded them abroad telling them they couldn’t return home for weeks.
Yet the Aussie government still protects Qantas from competition, limiting flights and keeping prices high. Citizens there should be outraged at the crazy stunts Qatar Airways has to engage in just to provide more flights in and out of the country.
Marriott has myriad airline partners – at 38 it’s way more than bank transfer programs. We’re now seeing a change to the Marriott points-to-miles transfer bonus. Specifically, the hotel chain informed customers this morning that the bonus would no longer be available on transfers to American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, or Avianca LifeMiles effective October 31. Transferring 60,000 Marriott points will yield only 20,000 AAdvantage miles going forward – not 25,000.
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 »
