The Marriott Courtyard in Bentonville, Arkansas is currently offering a ‘mules stay free’ rate of $79 per night, and it’s being promoted by the mayor of nearby Pea Ridge.
When have you ever been able to bring a mule to a hotel before? A giraffe, sure, but not a mule.
A comic book store in Houston, the Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstor, is suing the Crowne Plaza hotel next door for negligence because of all of the indignities our superheroes have had to endure from the IHG property’s guests. And they’ve put their suit in the form of an actual comic book, filed with the Harris County courts.
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.
Rental car prices have in many cases become the biggest expense of a trip. Rental companies offloaded vehicle inventories during the pandemic, and didn’t place orders. The market for cars is tight. And travel has picked back up. So there’s more people looking for cars than there are cars. Prices are sky high.
On my most recent trip Hertz was oversold by more than 60 and they had just one car. I got it. In situations like this I recommend tipping. You can debate in the comments whether the current circumstance justifies making more than one rental reservation, from different car companies. That fails Kantian ethics (how would this look if everyone did it?) but it’s a guerrilla tactic in a Mad Max-style world where everyone is out for themselves.
Hilton Honors was a weak loyalty program to begin with. It was less rewarding for your spend than you realized in terms of free nights earned – it offers lower rebates for both general members and for top elites than the other major chains (I show my work) – and more modest elite benefits than Hyatt and even the consistently inconsistent Marriott.
However what Hilton had going for it is breakfast. That was offered at all brands, without exceptions, and offered even to Golds. Gold is more or less a giveaway level, available via many credit cards and historically bundled via a number of promotions.
Occasionally things have gotten out of hand, and passengers have become violent. There’s a much greater proportion of leisure passengers now, and first-time passengers, than ever before (“every airline’s passengers are Spirit Airlines passengers now”) and we’ve seen video of shocking confrontations that became violent against cabin crew. Those are so shocking, in part, because they are also still so unusual.
However the American Airlines flight attendants union is telling its members that if things escalate to create an unsafe situation, getting law enforcement involved may not be enough. They should get the FBI involved.
American Airlines flight AA893 from Charlotte to Nassau went mechanical on Monday, and the airline switched aircraft to get passengers on their way. Already delayed several hours, tensions were running high. And a group of high school students on board chose the moment they were on their second aircraft, ready to depart, to stage a mask protest that “lasted for hours.”
The different payment methods American Airlines has, and the rules for each, can be complicated.
Here’s a deep dive on using trip credits and how American is adding features to make them easier to work with.
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 airline “assigned [its] vice president of customer service to be his personal liaison” and Gitomer asked that VP for a consulting job. Chiames said, though, that it was his “verbal abuse of our employees.. [which] have left employees in tears” that led to the banning.
Gitomer, for his part, “described himself as a demanding, but not abusive, customer. He remembered only one time that he made an employee cry, several years ago.”
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 »
