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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
How have hotel stocks basically recovered to pre-pandemic levels, when U.S. revenue per available room is down over 50% year-to-year and business travelers aren’t on the verge of coming back any time soon even if there’s pandemic light at the end of the tunnel?
Marriott has a status challenge program where they’ll give anyone with at least mid-tier status in one of the major hotel loyalty programs and just one night of stay credit in the past year up to Platinum status in their program for 90 days, and a quick path to keep that status.
The Netherlands has banned passenger flights from the U.K. in response to reports of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 that spreads more easily. Planes can bring passengers to the U.K. but must return without passengers. The virus mutation has been detected in Denmark and Australia, but has not been discovered in the U.S. (yet).
What we know so far is that U.K. scientists believe it is far more transmissible, but doesn’t seem to be more dangerous, and shouldn’t mitigate the effectiveness of vaccines.
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 »
