American Airlines, like many other travel companies, has reduced requirements for earning elite status in 2021. However they haven’t done nearly enough considering that business travel won’t restart for some time.
American Airlines knows this and is cold calling customers, and following up with an email, offering to sell bundles of elite qualifying miles, segments, and qualifying dollars at a variety of price points.
Amazon’s former head of visual effects for Amazon Studios, Marc Sadeghi, is suing the company saying he was fired for upgrading a flight to New Zealand despite a medical condition he claims made coach travel impossible. If he wins, upgrades as a disability accommodation could become the emotional support animals of the 2020s.
American Airlines is adding several Chicago routes, bookable starting this weekend. The one I’m most excited about is Chicago – Fresno, but there are also surprising additions like Chicago – Nantucket (!) which airlines don’t pay enough attention to even seasonally, with service beyond Boston, New York, Philadelphia and to a lesser extent DC.
Here’s an internal employee update on all the new, resumed, and extended routes out of the Windy City for American AIrlines.
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.
Hotels host meetings and events, and generally do not carefully vet the messages that will be shared or the people who will gather at those meetings to make sure they’re consistent with the values of their median customer, consistent with the values of their most vocal customers, or consistent with the values of twitter.
From time to time that becomes a problem, and seemingly becomes a problem for Hyatt (and, oddly, for the Hyatt Regency Orlando) relatively often.
American Airlines now lets AAdvantage members redeem 12,000 miles for an at-home Covid-19 test and they’re offering slightly more than a penny per point in value with the redemption.
Two pilots and an official with a private jet operator have been convicted in Turkey over the daring escape from Japan of former Nissan, Mistubishi, Renault and Michelin North America head Carlos Ghosn. Meanwhile two flight attendants were acquitted of failing to report a crime. International fugitive Ghosn was once Fortune‘s “Asia Businessman of the Year,” “Man Of The Year, and “10 Most Powerful People In Business Outside The U.S.” His life has been chronicled in Japanese comics. But he was arrested at Tokyo Narita airport in November 2018 for tax evasion and misappropriating Nissan coompany assets. He was granted bail, but re-arrested and released on new charges in April 2019. Renault then uncovered over $13 million in improper expenses he’d incurred. On December 29, 2019 Ghosn left his apartment in Tokyo around 2:30 p.m.…
The Hyatt Regency Boston has apparently become notorious as a hub for prostitution with “at least 70 incidents involving sex for pay at the hotel over the past six months” according to the Boston police department in a licensing hearing.
In order to minimize future incidents they’ve hired the security director away from the Sheraton Boston and added a second night guard to their staff.
This case only came to light because of the sheer scale – over $300,000 in credit card rewards without the purchase of bona fide goods or services.
However anyone who bought, stay, a million dollars or more in dollar coins from the U.S. Mint is lucky that the IRS cannot audit back that far in the absence of a fraud on the relevant tax returns.
The CEO of Qantas previously claimed his country would re-open to international travel July 1. He was wrong. The airline is pushing back the restart of international flights to October 31.
Their Airbus A380s won’t return to service until June 30, 2023 ‘at the earliest’ so international flights will all be operated by Airbus A330s and Boeing 787s. And they won’t take delivery of their next 3 Boeing 787s, either.
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 »
