IHG Rewards devalued their points without notice and in the middle of the pandemic, when hotel properties have been suffering. Those hotels, for the most part, should want award guests filling rooms more than ever before. And with room rates in most places down, points should go farther than before not be worth far less.
So why would IHG do this?
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.
he U.S. federal government isn’t going to require vaccine passports for citizens, nor are citizens going to be required to get vaccinated (though failing to require vaccination in exchange for $1400 stimmy checks was a huge lost opportunity in the fight against the pandemic).
However the Biden administration is working on standards to allow for vaccine passports, and has been in talks with airlines about creating them. The White House says it will offer its guidance for moving forward “soon.”
With the greatest drop in travel demand in history, hotels in many parts of the world have struggled mightily – although in the U.S. and some other regions business has been coming back – especially in popular leisure destinations that have been largely open during the pandemic like Florida and Cancun.
Hotel chains have relaxed the rules that their properties have to follow, limiting how much each has to spend on forward-looking investments and during each guest stay. Hilton recently updated its brand standard waivers, including outlining when some services have to return.
With the Biden administration looking to add ‘domestic extremists’ to the No Fly List. Democrats wanted to put Capitol Rioters on the list and President Obama wanted to ban anyone on the list from owning guns.
These efforts have had a lot of support from readers, but anyone who cares about civil liberties should be very, very concerned. And a new lawsuit hopes to expose some of these challenges.
Star Alliance carrier Singapore Airlines is letting members earn status credits for things other than flying through February 2022. In addition current Singapore elites earn double status credits for qualifying spend through KrisShop, KrisFlyer Spree and at Kris+ partners.
Current non-status members can earn silver or gold status without ever flying.
With Alaska Airlines joining the oneworld alliance and continuing to partner more closely with American Airlines, the two airlines have introduced reciprocal elite benefits – the most valuable of which are access for elites to extra legroom seats and upgrades.
As the partnership was being developed, American Airlines Senior Vice President Vasu Raja emphasized the need for a seamless customer experience between the two airlines so “that a customer of either Alaska or American Airlines would choose us over one of our competitors’ long haul services” as a result of upgrades, seat assignments, and other benefits. And yet….
With the new American Airlines-Alaska Airlines partnership, Alaska Airlines elites get free companion upgrades even though most American Airlines top tier elites do not.
And now Alaska Airlines elites are getting new international upgrades – for specific flights – that are bookable past when American’s Executive Platinum upgrades expire.
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.
Radisson Hotels was purchased from Carlson by Chinese conglomerate collapsing HNA Group, and then sold to Jinjiang International.
Come June Radisson in the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean) will be separate from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. And they’re splitting the rewards program in two. This satisfies a U.S. government demand to separate U.S. customer data and firewall it off from its Chinese ownership.
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 »
