A passenger hanging their hair over their seat back, in front of the passenger behind them, frequently creates a social media stir. And it immediately prompts fiendish dreams of cutting off the passenger’s hair with a pair of scissors. Fortunately the person trying to work on their laptop on a Southwest Airlines flight on Tuesday had no such impulse – or scissors.
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 value of frequent flyer miles is something I’ve been calculating for years. I think what makes my approach different is I lay out the theory behind my valuations, I explain a lot of the moving pieces, and I present a comparison between my valuations and the valuations others are giving. I first laid this out the value of frequent flyer miles in 2014 and then updated values in 2016, 2017 and 2019. I skipped 2020 due to the pandemic but a tremendous amount has changed. Air Canada launched a new program with the same name (raising redemption prices but eliminating fuel surcharges), Delta and United devalued partner awards more than once, Capital One launched transferrable points mostly at 1:1, and new program Bilt entered the transferable points space – to name just a few…
Marriott has their own homesharing platform to compete directly with Airbnb, but Marriott hotels list at Airbnb and not Marriott Homes & Villas, and in some cases pull their room inventory from Marriott entirely to sell suites through Airbnb.
What I find perhaps most striking is nobody at Marriott corporate thought to Google “airbnb+[Marriott brand]” to suss this stuff out?
Given the threat that Airbnb poses to the traditional lodging model, I was surprised to read a review of the Moxy Portland Downtown that included the discovery that they sell their suite on Airbnb – and not Marriott.com.
Southwest passengers arriving in Phoenix were greeted by a serenading gate agent, caught on video and shared to social media. Sound on, “Going through corona is so dang cruel, seems like a time that we made a change, ya I’m feeling the strain…Give me airline with heart and soul, one that takes some time to sing some rock ‘n roll…”
“Drift Away” has been covered by Michael Bolton and Uncle Kracker, but this Southwest gate agent is the airline’s Weird Al Yankovic and parodies songs with his own airline-related lyrics.
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.
American Airlines melted down at the end of October without enough cabin crew to work flight. This followed a meltdown in June caused by not having enough Boeing 737 pilots. United Airlines sent an email to all its customers throwing shade at them, and suggesting they book United for the holidays.
In order to prevent a repeat of the October flight attendant debacle, American Airlines is throwing money at the problem (err, at the flight attendants).
American Airlines customers may find themselves on a regional jet with rows of seats missing. Here’s the front of the cabin of an American Eagle Embraer ERJ-175, registration N502SY, operated by SkyWest. This is a new aircraft, just delivered in August 2021.
The Berlin airport still has huge problems. First of all the airport is on the brink of bankruptcy and expects to run out of money at the start of next year.
Wherever the money has gone, it clearly hasn’t been invested in clean water, which brings us to the second recent problem: the water isn’t safe to drink in terminal 1 which is host to Lufthansa Group carriers, Air France, British Airways, easyJet, United and others.
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 »
