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Biggest Starwood Points Sale Before the Program Effectively Ends Next Month

hotel lobby
Jun 17 2018

Starwood is offering a 35% discount on buying Starpoints through July 20. They’re actually letting you buy points at a price which those points are worth which is great.

Technically Starwood Preferred Guest will still exists August 1, but that’s a legal distinction. Marriott, Starwood, and Ritz-Carlton will all have the same program at this point just with different names because contractual issues prevent them from calling it one program. For all intents and purposes though this is the last sale of Starpoints qua Starpoints.

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What Are the Least Racist Airports to Go Through US Immigration?

passport getting stamped
Jun 16 2018

There’s no question that immigration and customs develops a different culture and reputation at different airports in the U.S. While you’d hope they would apply standards and procedures from their handbook uniformly, there’s a difference between de facto practice and de jure rules.

People learn procedures by watching other people, and by discussing how to go about doing their jobs with colleagues. In other words, customs and immigration procedures are carried out by people.

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How Just a Few Bad Employees Can Undermine $3 Billion Invested in Airline Product

one world plane
Jun 08 2018

American highlights a $3 billion investment in products and services. However poor service from the airline’s front line can undermine all the rest of the investment.

A great example of this comes from June 4th’s American Airlines flight AA192 from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. A business class passenger reportedly voluntarily offloaded himself because his experience with a flight attendant onboard prior to departure was so bad.

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$500 Million to Fix Lagging Sheratons

hotel bed
Jun 06 2018

Three years ago Starwood announced a $100 million effort to revitalize the Sheraton brand. This was mostly about marketing investment, but they made some tweaks using the Sheraton ‘Grand’ moniker and a carrot and stick approach with fees and incentives, to try to get hotel owners to invest in their properties.

They promised to improve the offerings in club lounges, improve hotel design, and bring on new properties. This was back when the chain was still trying to grow on its own even though the board had largely decided to sell.

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Marriott Courtyards, AC Hotels, and Moxy Aren’t Included in Free Elite Breakfast After All

hotel food
Jun 01 2018

We were promised these hotel brands would offer Platinum breakfast benefits. They don’t. They offer a food and beverage credit, which can be used any time during a stay.

That credit won’t cover breakfast at all of their properties, but the news isn’t as bad as it appeared at first — Marriott is updating their chart, which suggested the credit would be only once per stay rather than once per day (for the member and guest).

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