With flights selling out it’s tough to get awards, especially in business class and especially for more than a passenger or two. That’s why it’s such a great time to book any winter Europe travel. It may be off-season but it’s also when destinations aren’t overrun with European tourists.
Star Alliance award space for four or more passengers is widely available between New York and several cities in Europe for January through March.
American Airlines now sells ‘Business Plus’ fares that include Flagship check-in, Flagship First Dining access (currently only available at New York JFK, Miami and Dallas Fort-Worth) and a third checked bag.
View it as bundling Flagship First Dining into the fare, but beware this is useful only at a limited number of airports.
On Sunday aa passenger in Dallas had their bag taken at the gate. The gate agent reportedly “tag[ged] them without asking final destination,” didn’t give customer a claim tag and told them to “them to look for it at [their] connecting airport NOT final destination.” They thought they’d never see their bag again.
The flight’s captain, though, wasn’t having any of this.
You can read full benefit details here. Now that benefits are (mostly) live at hotels we’ll start to see how compliant properties are and how the new program works in practice. Regardless, there’s only improvements here in terms of benefits, addressing what has been the key weakness in the IHG program.
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.
An employee at Disneyland Paris destroyed a park guest’s wedding proposal by “snatching [the] ring and ushering them away” while the man was in the act. The suitor says he was given permission to be there, while the worker saw the couple in a restricted area.
Delta once said ‘if everyone’s elite, nobody is.’ But if everyone has lounge access, nobody does. To mitigate overcrowding Delta and American Express worked on getting Delta premium card customers access to (also overcrowded) Centurion lounges, and to build Centurion lounges in some Delta terminals.
That hasn’t solved crowding because more people have access, and are trying to use the lounge, than there’s space. That can mean lines to get in – a wait list.
Marriott’s Edition brand doesn’t have to provide elite members with breakfast. However all Marriott hotels have to provide guests staying on points the same benefits as guests on paid rates.
The Edition in Bodrum, Turkey is a Bonvoy member favorite. It’s also one of the hotels where awards were devalued the most when Marriott went to dynamic pricing.
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.
Someone asked on Twitter why American Airlines has the requirement for three separate fields to log in – the account number, password, and last name. In other words, why isn’t account number and password enough? I happen to know the reason, and it’s mildly interesting.
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 »
