News and notes from around the interweb:
- Lionel Richie’s son arrested at London Heathrow for claiming he had a bomb in his bag
- Gate Gourmet is stockpiling meals in the UK as it prepares to provide catering services post-Brexit
Gate Gourmet, which serves 20 airlines at 10 U.K. airports, is accumulating enough pizza, ice cream and roast duck (for business class) to see passengers through about 10 days of disruption. Chilled items are being held at a warehouse in Peterborough, England, while mountains of snack boxes, peanuts and toilet rolls are piling up at a room-temperature facility in London.
- Regent Hotels will join IHG Rewards Club February 1, hopefully great for IHG redemptions (we don’t know how many points each property will cost yet) but not sure Regent’s own members will be pleased.
- Many years ago I was hosting an event at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. One of our staff, who is now a well-known political commentator, walked into her room and found the bed unmade and a used condom on top of the sheets. The Ritz upgraded her to a better view.
On the other hand when housekeeping at the Ritz in Grand Cayman walked in on my while I was getting dressed despite the Do Not Disturb sign being on the door, gave away my table mid-way through breakfast, and was otherwise generally non-responsive to any service request during my stay I got… nothing.
Both of those situations came to mind when reading about what might be due to cruise guests to walk into their room for the first time only to find staff having sex in the bed? (HT: TravelZork)
- Chase sending out 1099s for checking account bonuses that’s not surprising, Citi does this too, it seems clear that checking account bonuses should be tax-reportable. What’s notable are (1) the penny apiece value attributed to Ultimate Rewards, and (2) that Chase reports this as interest income (so much report $10+) while Citi reports as Misc. income (so reportable at $600+).
Copyright: jetcityimage / 123RF Stock Photo - The best cleaning products, according to hotel housekeepers I think the idea is that you’re disgustingly messy and since housekeepers have to clean up after you they know just what to use. Plus they do it a lot, all day every day.
- Track hotel prices after you book to capture savings prepaid, non-cancellable hotel rates are rarely worthwhile.
I didn’t know that you had a staff for the blog. Is it many people? I always kind of wondered how every other titan has a number of people where you always did everything yourself.
@Christian – staff? I’m not sure what you are talking about. OH! The conference. That was for my regular job, that I also still have in addition to the blog. 🙂
Hello,
My boyfriend and I would like to travel to Southeast Asia in January 2020. We would like to fly first class. We can’t afford to fly first class but we are hoping to use frequent miles points from Delta America Express to upgrade to First Class(Delta One)
Is this possible to upgrade applying for a Platinum or Delta Reserve? We can’t apply for the Gold because I applied for one several years ago.
Recently, we flew back from Europe on Delta’s first class(total fluke)and loved it. Flying to Asia we don’t necessarily need to fly first class but could fly Comfort E(?)
Any suggestions withdrawal be appreciated.
Thank you
Compensation for the cruise couple doesn’t seem enough. $500 total in future cruise credits for what happened to them is insulting.
A crew member (aka staff) was having sex in their cabin. Then they weren’t able to even change rooms. That would have ruined the cruise for the couple.
If they were able to change rooms, a sincere apology and $300 in cruise credits may have been enough. But since they weren’t able to change rooms. I would have expected more.
For example is some hotel staff members were having sex in my room and I walked in on them, I would expect they would waive one night from my total bill.
@ Yumi
I can’t comment on Delta’s program because I fly to SEA a lot & they are not big in the region. Also surprised you would want to fly a US-based carrier when you have choices like ANA or Singie. Their economy is really good. Garuda is a member of Skyteam so maybe something there would work with Delta miles although they don’t fly direct — if Bali is your target no one does.