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 AAdvantage program has been without a Vice President for several months. Rick Elieson, who took over from Bridget Blaise-Shamai in the huge American Airlines pandemic leadership shuffle, announced his departure has fall. They’ve named a new Vice President in Julie Rath. Julie has been Vice President of Customer Experience and Reservations and becomes Vice President of Customer Experience, Loyalty and Marketing. American has also been without a Vice President of Marketing since Janelle Anderson’s departure. She previously worked at Delta Air Lines and Northwest, where she went to work out of college in 1991. Ms. Rath continues to report to Alison Taylor, Chief Customer Officer who has overseen sales, and whom many have expected to leave after being passed over for incoming CEO Robert Isom’s Senior Leadership Team. Heather Samp, the current Managing Director…
A passenger has taken to social media to share the story of her upgrade to first class. It didn’t come due to elite status, spending miles, or dressing sharply (or whispering ‘revenue management’ to an agent). Instead she was moved to the front cabin after her seat opponent logged into the inflight internet and started searching for “sex on planes.” And then watching sex on planes.
Marriott is getting heat for eliminating award charts at the end of this month, but Hilton already did this in 2017 while claiming award prices wouldn’t go up. And every time a program has dropped published price lists, that’s meant an irresistible temptation to raise the cost of awards. They don’t even have to tell members that they’re doing it.
Hilton has just increased pricing at some of their best properties, though it will take a comprehensive review to identify just how many and how much.
The Biden administration wasn’t quite ready to let the federal transportation mask mandate lapse, out of fear they’d look stupid if Covid-19 cases surged again. But they know the mandate is on its last legs. Every state is eliminating its indoor mask mandates (or has already done so). Even if cloth masks were effective against the Omicron variant, this mandate would do very little on its own.
The federal mask mandate for commercial airlines, airports, trains and buses was set to end March 18. It will be extended through April 18. That one month extension, announced a mere 8 days before the rule would have lapsed, is the shortest extension yet. And, barring unforeseen events, is likely to be the last.
Capital One is partnering with Chef José Andrés, the MICHELIN Guide and the James Beard Foundation on a new dining portal that combines curated restaurant recommendations and tables set aside for Capital One rewards cardmembers.
Fuel prices are at record levels, and that’s bad for airlines. It’s also bad for transportation to and from the airport and hotel It’s bad for heating (which means it’s bad for hotels in chilly weather). It means higher prices for travel, but let’s look at airfare first.
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.
United Airlines imposed a strict vaccine requirement for employees ahead of the federal government pushing large employers and government contractors to do so. And they weren’t liberal about encouraging and approving exemptions the way that some other large airlines were.
Surely they won’t be able to ‘stand alone’ continuing to develop in Russia, even if the moves competitors made are mostly symbolic. On the other hand perhaps their press release was delayed having to check first to make sure it didn’t list Taiwan as a country.
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 »
