U.S. residents who are airline elite frequent flyers can get free Air Canada Aeroplan elite status for the rest of 2021, and keep that status for the 2022 program with by booking and flying just one roundtrip on Air Canada (or Air Canada Express or Rouge) by January 15, 2022.
This is huge for anyone with elite status and transferable credit card points, or anyone who also flies United.
Singapore Airlines will re-start it’s ‘fifth-freedom’ routes between New York and Frankfurt, and between San Francisco and Hong Kong, which each flight continuing on to Singapore. These flights will return beginning November 2. This will mean bringing the airline up to about two-thirds of its pre-Covid U.S. flying, and the airline has re-iterated its plan to restart other U.S. services including Seattle – Singapore non-stop and Houston – Manchester – Singapore as well.
The Port Authority of New York New Jersey is scheduled to consider an agreement for an American Express Centurion lounge at Newark airport this Thursday.
Hilton’s CEO was first out of the gate publicly declaring that guests should no longer receive daily housekeeping at full service hotels in the U.S. as a cost-cutting measure he believed people would accept after the pandemic. The goal is to charge people more, deliver them less, and improve margins.
A guest at the Hilton Brentwood/Nashville Suites shares what that looks like in practice.
There have been several rumors about a new Hyatt card finally launching. We don’t know what that card would look like. The Points Guy just dropped a piece on why Chase needs a Hyatt small business card which I took as one hint, though Danny Deal Guru reports on a rumor from Chase customer service about a new Hyatt premium card (think $400+ annual fee).
Pilots are already treated differently by government mandates during the pandemic. Pilots aren’t allowed to fly within 48 hours of taking a vaccine shot due to potential side effects. And pilots are not required to wear face masks while in the cockpit.
The Biden administration executive order directing OSHA to introduce a vaccine mandate on companies with 100+ employees includes an expected alternative means of compliance in the form of regular Covid-19 testing. While United Airlines is not permitting this, a fear of losing pilots would seem to be enough reason why American Airlines would embrace this alternative.
At the start of the month American Airlines updated its rules to make clear that they would not reimburse hotel stays you book yourself when your flights are severely delayed or cancelled (you have to wait for them to give you a hotel room if you want them to cover it) and to say they don’t have any obligation to get you to your destination – they can just refund your ticket if they prefer.
Now they’re updating their rules again to further limit your right to a refund in the event of delays of over 4 hours.
Anti-customer policies adopted under the mantra of self-preservation are no longer necessary. It’s time to revert to pre-pandemic refund rules. A three hour flight change means not giving customers what they paid for, and passengers should be entitled to their money back.
Passengers will make ingenious use of the limited amenities offered to them on a plane, whether it’s plugging a sewing machine into seat power to make curtains or drying underwear using the air vent above a seat.
But what if you don’t have enough outlets for your electronics?
Customers who earned their status the hard way for next year, rather than just having it extended, have something of a legitimate beef with their brand. They’ve chosen their travel provider, trying to earn their status. They’ve selected less convenient flights, sometimes connections rather than non-stops. They’ve chosen less convenient hotels. They may have paid more than what competitors were pricing their products at. And they’ve done all of that all while accepting lower levels of service (fewer meals in airline cabins, limited housekeeping or breakfast benefits and closed club lounges at hotels).
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 »
