The new IHG One Rewards elite program offers a huge improvement in elite benefits.
Diamond breakfast doesn’t start until June, but some hotels are rolling it out early, giving us a window into what to expect. Benefit delivery is always tough, and some hotels are going to be more generous adhering to the spirit of the program than others.
Delta business class award space between New York JFK and Frankfurt is reasonably available between May and December 7 at the saver level. You can book these seats right now for just 39,000 points each way.
I have nearly 10 million AAdvantage miles and I’m still tempted to re-consider having this card again in my wallet. As many readers know, base points from spend (so not the initial bonus, and not the additional points from spending in a bonus category) count towards AAdvantage elite status now.
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.
The very first Caption by Hyatt, the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis, will open this summer as a category 3 redemption. Additional properties are planned in Shanghai, Osaka, Tokyo and Saigon.
Since the brand was launched, Hyatt has opened its first tommie hotels as well. And I’m not sure I understand how the concepts are really supposed to be different. Hopefully seeing a Caption property open will help explain this.
Hyatt’s elusive and excellent Alila Ventana Big Sur has quite a lot of free night availability all of a sudden for booking between February and May.
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.
Spirit’s rejection was a gift to JetBlue which was already offering to overpay for Spirit. The “winner’s curse” was in effect, Since the market knows what Spirit is worth, in order to ‘win’ JetBlue was having to overpay. And indeed, Spirit is worth less to JetBlue than it is to Frontier.
JetBlue’s revised offer, unfortunately for their shareholders, was the same amount of money while extracting less value from the deal.
With just six seats, first class will be arranged in two rows of 3 seats (1-1-1). The suite will feature a separate seat and bed (as we’ve seen from Etihad and Singapore on the Airbus A380, and Lufthansa had at one point on its Boeing 747s). With an aisle between seats there’s no divider to bring down to share space with a traveling partner, however.
The new Qantas first class seat will feature a 32 inch HD screen, a wardrobe to store clothes after you’ve changed into pajamas and a mirror on the door. The seat will be controlled via iPad, and most innovative will be individual temperature and humidity controls.
Spirit Airlines announced that their board has unanimously rejected JetBlue’s offer to pay more for the airline than Frontier, with whom the ultra low cost carrier had entered into a sale agreement.
JetBlue’s offer involved paying more but undermining Spirit’s low cost advantage and walking away from their more profitable business model. Instead JetBlue wanted Spirit for its planes, pilots, gates and slots.
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 »
