More Companies Can Really Use Loyalty To Turn Themselves Around

by Gary Leff

Dec 21 2020

With Four Seasons Hotels even about to launch new elite rewards, it’s become clear: loyalty holdouts lose out. The principles of loyalty marketing apply to all travel businesses, and to other industries too.

How much it makes sense to invest in a customer depends on a product’s margins, and the extent to which elite benefits versus rebates matter to a customer depend on their profile and subjective preferences – but the basic principles are the same across customer groups and even industries. What form the program takes can vary, but recognizing and rewarding customers matters.

Continue Reading »

You Stopped Buying Tickets This Year. Airlines Are Taking Your Money Anyway.

by Gary Leff

Dec 21 2020

You haven’t been buying airline tickets, but the airlines are taking your money anyway. $15 billion in the latest Congressional spending package goes to the airlines, a second bailout. In exchange they have to bring back workers that have been involuntarily furloughed, and can’t furlough again until April 1.

$15 billion, retroactive to December 1, will be provided to cover four months of airline payroll. That’s $375,000 per furloughed worker at an annual run rate of $1.5 million per job, perhaps the most expensive jobs program in history.

Continue Reading »

You Didn’t Travel Much In 2020, But With This Luggage You’ll Look Like You Did

by Gary Leff

Dec 20 2020

Some travelers think when you buy new luggage, you have to worry about it getting dinged and scraped, but I don’t think that’s true. The whole point of luggage is to protect what’s inside of it. Getting nicked is literally what it’s for. And the well-worn look just means the luggage has been with you through many journeys.

But what if you want your bags to look damaged from the start, like a new pair or torn jeans?

Continue Reading »

The Case Against Post-Covid Business Travel. Will You Ever Fly Again The Way You Used To?

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Dec 20 2020

With more and more Americans testing positive for Covid-19, and with the first (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine already rolling out, we’re likely approaching the final stages of the pandemic. But are we all going to go right back to normal, how things were before?

Now that everyone uses Zoom remote work is better than it used to be. People coming into a meeting by video that’s happening in person used to be second class attendees For a large subset of white collar workers work from home simply works better.

Continue Reading »

It’s Easy To Enter The U.S. Illegally, And Not Even Mean To Do It

by Gary Leff

passport getting stamped
Dec 20 2020

Usually a airline employee – not a government official – is all that stands in the way of a plane load of arriving passengers becoming illegal immigrants.

Terminal D at Dallas Fort-Worth is the international terminal, but it’s used for domestic flights too. Whether or not you’re directed to immigration and customs depends on which doors are open or closed when you get off the aircraft.

Continue Reading »

7 Ways Hotel Stays Will Change After The Pandemic

by Gary Leff

loews
Dec 20 2020

Hotels have gone through a deeper recession than any current executive or property owner has ever experienced. Many properties have closed, some will change hands. And costs have been cut wherever possible.

Guest expectations have changed too – around service and cleanliness – while there’s never been more of a need to compete for a limited amount of business, something that will remain true even as the pandemic comes to a close. Here are 7 things to expect for hotel stays going forward.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Meeting Passengers At The Airport To Warn Them Against ‘Throwaway Ticketing’

by Gary Leff

american plane
Dec 20 2020

Airlines have tried to crack down on the money-saving practice of ‘throwaway ticketing’ for years. You buy a flight to somewhere that connects beyond your final destination because it’s cheaper, and just don’t take the flight.

A reader was recently approached by American Airlines customer service staff at the airport and warned against throwaway ticketing. He did it anyway. Here’s what happened.

Continue Reading »