Virgin Atlantic Restoring 2020 Award Pricing For Delta Transatlantic Non-Stop Flights

by Gary Leff

On New Years Day Virgin Atlantic updated its award pricing for travel on Delta. One of the few bright spots in Virgin’s Flying Club program was inexpensive Delta awards, so this was disappointing in the extreme. Prices went up in some cases more than 100%, largely focused on longer distance premium cabin awards.

Then, two days later, their spokespeople started saying that transatlantic awards wouldn’t go up as much as they had published and there would be an update. They’ve now said non-stop transatlantic awards will revert to their earlier pricing, but flying Delta anywhere else in the world or with connections will be a lot more expensive than it was in 2020 in many cases.

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Hotel Chain Advertises Free Local Phone Calls, Policy Is To Charge For Them Anyway

by Gary Leff

Jan 10 2021

Extended Stay America has had a customer-friendly policy dating back years of not charging for local calls. They’ve advertised this since when in-room phone revenue was a thing (before everyone had cell phones with unlimited domestic calling) and the chain stills promote ‘free local calls’ on their website.

Yet for several months they’ve been charging for local calls. The chain tells me that’s not a mistake.

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Get Two Years Of Hilton Diamond Status After Just 9 Nights

by Gary Leff

Jan 10 2021

Hilton has cut its status challenge requirements in half, and since it’s the beginning of the calendar year doing a status match now and meeting the requirements earns next year’s status.

In other words, do a status match now and you get 90 days of status. During that time stay 9 nights with Hilton and you will earn Honors Diamond elite status through March 2023.

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New York Times Says Credit Card Rewards Hurt The Poor. That’s Not True.

by Gary Leff

credit cards
Jan 10 2021

In a glowing New York Times magazine profile of Brian Kelly, the founder of The Points Guy website, there are a number of unreasonable and poorly-argued claims. One in particular bothered me enough to address: that people earning credit card rewards do so at the expense of the poor.

Merchants pay fees to swipe credit cards, but the cost to accept credit cards is lower than other forms of payment. In the fight between businesses and credit card companies over fees, poor people are used as a fig leaf for corporate interests. Cutting interchange rates doesn’t lower prices, and doesn’t improve access to credit for the poor.

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Why Washington Dulles Is So Much Worse Than Close-In National Airport

by Gary Leff

american airline moon buggy
Jan 09 2021

Washington Dulles is a very bad airport. And the reasons why are simple. It’s far from the city but once you make it to the airport you’re still nowhere near the airport. There will eventually be a train to the airport but it – too – will stop before the actual airport.

The reasons Dulles is so bad are legion, but it’s not limited to corruption. Sure contracts go to friends, the Office of Audit doesn’t do formal audits and jobs go to unqualified friends and relatives. But the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority oversees both Washington Dulles and National airports, and National is so much better. The real reasons are much worse.

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