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.
One feature of the Hilton Honors Diamond program is that members can gift someone Gold status when they reach 60 qualifying nights in a year. If they stay 100 nights, the gift becomes Diamond status.
In addition to this standard offer, Hilton will allow all Diamonds to gift someone elite status this year. Diamond members can gift Gold status, lifetime Diamonds can gift Diamond status.
Alaska Airlines has changed how elite status will be earned in 2021. Alaska used to require more miles flown if you include miles on partner airlines than if you’re using miles flown exclusively on Alaska. That’s gone.
Starting in 2021, Alaska and partner flights will count the same towards elite status, and the lower “Alaska-only” status requirements apply. But they’ll require a minimum number of Alaska flights for status – to keep low yielding American Airlines flyers from just dumping their American segments into Alaska.
Alaska Airlines has announced how oneworld elite status levels will apply to their Mileage Plan elites one the airline joins the alliance on March 31.
The sixth edition of CAAC’s Technical Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Epidemics in Transport Airlines and Airports lays out the country’s plan to avoid spreading infection while managing inbound international traffic. Domestic travel has largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but strict limits are placed on international travel to avoid importing SARS-CoV-2 back into the country.
Wearing diapers and avoiding the lavatory are just one of many strategies – including masks, gloves, goggles, hair nets, and hazmat suits – that are recommended for crew on flights bringing people back from places where the virus is spreading. Planes have quarantine sections of the aircraft cordoned off for anyone who shoes symptoms of infection, in order to separate them from other passengers and crew.
It’s interesting that they waited an extra month to program their schedule, but they’re publishing it three months farther out than they’d previously led customers to believe.
And it’s useful to know when the schedule becomes available for access to the cheapest fares on presumed peak travel days, such as July 4th weekend. Southwest hasn’t had change fees, even before the rest of the airlines jumped on the bandwagon for some fares and certain flights. So you can book forward-looking cheap tickets if it makes sense and retain flexibility.
Platinum Pro members can have choose a confirmed international upgrade, miles and other choices – and get new higher-tier oneworld alliance benefits. Executive Platinums can choose several options like miles and a club membership instead of confirmed upgrades if they’d like – and get the Platinum Pro choice, too.
Airline mask rules are likely to be watered down by a new executive order, but may last longer than they would have if left up to airlines.
SpaceX launched its Starship SN8 prototype today and flew it to 40,000 feet. It appeared to be a successful test. Elon Musk had given a 1 in 3 chance of the rocket landing in one piece, and the odds worked against him. This was an uncrewed mission so nobody was harmed.
Sandra Jeenie Kwon is a former Emirates flight attendant with over 180 million likes on TikTok and with four million followers across social media platforms (here’s her instagram. At times she’ll post several videos a day, acting out the funny behaviors of passengers, and of cabin crew.
Here she acts out when a cabin crewmember finds a passenger attractive…
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 »
