The old Rio Las Vegas will become several Hyatt-branded properties with Hyatt Regency the first to come online, expected in 2023. Full service Hyatts in Las Vegas will be something new, but Hyatt isn’t telling us what other brands they’ll have yet and none of this will happen for several years. So that’s only of limited interest today.
What’s more intriguing I think is what this means for Hyatt’s MGM M life Rewards partnership.
The Hilton Honors terms and conditions rolled back and started showing 12 month expiration again. That’s a mistake. Hilton points still only expire after 15 months of inactivity (and expiration remains paused throughout 2021).
Two women were removed from an American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago. You can see them walking away from the gate, with masks covering their mouths but not their noses. They’re escorted by an officer. Despite the presence of law enforcement, one of the women has words with a passenger waiting in the gate area – and it turns into a brawl, with the officer trying to stop the fight by grabbing at the shirt of one of the women.
United Airlines flight UA728 from Newark to Miami diverted to Charleston, South Carolina Wednesday morning after a passenger bit his seatmate’s ear off, according to a police report of the incident.
JetBlue moved over from American Express to Barclays as issuer of its co-brand credit card in 2016. There’s probably a seven year deal in place expiring late in 2023. But JetBlue is already shopping their co-brand business to Goldman Sachs as they renegotiate with Barclays on an extension.
We rarely see large loyalty programs change issuers. It’s much more likely to see smaller brands with less lucrative products changing hands, which is why JetBlue could move again after just seven years.
The U.S. is targeting mid-May for lifting border restrictions in order to allow land crossings from Canada and Mexico, and international flights from the U.K., Europe and Brazil.
The Biden administration will be revisiting its border restrictions weekly, evaluating how the risk of new variants (already spreading wildly in the U.S. especially B.1.1.7) and protection from vaccines.
The worst airport gate in America is 35X at Washington National across the rover from D.C. You descend an escalator into a crowded pit with insufficient seating, where you wait to be dispatched into crowded buses that take you across the airport. And your reward for this has been a cramped American Eagle 50 seat regional jet.
On April 20th though 35X will be replaced by an entirely new concourse that supports larger aircraft, features an Admirals Club, as well as upscale dining options.
American Airlines crew headed to the airport for Tuesday’s 5:20 a.m. flight American Airlines 1204 from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami were robbed when their hotel van stopped after hitting an object in the road.
Crew left their hotel in early darkness. The van stopped in the road and the driver got out to clear debris from under the vehicle. One man got into the drivers seat with a knife, another opened the van’s sliding door and brandished a gun. He threatened crew with the firearm and demanded their electronics.
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.
The Orlando airport is poised to drop its fight over the name Orlando in a settlement with Orlando Melbourne airport.
Orlando Melbourne International Airport – a name in use since 1998 – is poised to become… Melbourne Orlando International Airport.
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 »
