ASIA

Search Results for "ASIA".

Starwood CEO Expects to Sell By End of Year

by Gary Leff

Oct 28 2015

Starwood CEO Adam Aron relayed during the company’s earnings call that he expects a sale by the end of the year. This morning I noted that Hyatt was rumored to be near an agreement to acquire Starwood. It would be interesting to see Adam Aron — who created the Gold Passport program as Hyatt’s Chief Marketing Officer — ultimately sell Starwood to his former employer.

For customers this would be the best possible outcome of any of the deal combinations Starwood is rumored to have looked at. I like this better than Wyndham, IHG, or Accor. For Hyatt and Starwood it’s not as clear how well an acquisition fills strategic gaps, however.

Continue Reading »

Here’s Everything You Need to Know About American’s New Flagship Dining Room in Dallas

by Gary Leff

Oct 28 2015

Back in May I wrote that American was planning a limited Flagship lounge in Dallas. American wasn’t talking — but I got the airport to confirm it in June.

American’s Flagship Dining Room inside the D concourse Admirals Club has a soft opening starting tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know about access, meal times, and food and drink.

Continue Reading »

3 Chinese Firms Vying to Buy Starwood Hotels

by Gary Leff

Oct 27 2015

Six months ago I speculated on what a Starwood-IHG (or Wyndham) merger would look like.

Three months ago market excitement ratcheted up over an IHG-Starwood combination, although that culminated in word from IHG that talks ended without a deal — although Starwood remained a potential acquisition target for Wyndham and Accor.

Now 3 Chinese firms are vying to make an offer to take over Starwood Hotels, at an expected price of more than $12 billion.

Continue Reading »

Amazing Star Alliance Award Space to Europe: 4 to 8 Seats and No Fuel Surcharges, Act Fast

by Gary Leff

Oct 24 2015

Star Allinace member Turkish Airlines has opened up as many as 8 business class award seats or more between the US and Istanbul in 2016. This is available on a wide range of dates.

Turkish serves more countries in the world than any other airline (and fourth most destinations and will provide a free hotel night in Istanbul if flight schedules force an overnight connection in Istanbul. You can generally route US – Istanbul on Turkish and then backtrack to Western Europe. They’re a great option for getting to Israel and to Athens, as well as to Africa and even Asia.

Continue Reading »

These are the Best Starwood Hotels in Each Region of the World

by Gary Leff

Oct 18 2015

Best can mean a lot of things. There are pure quality metrics, and we can debate those. But Starwood has done something interesting in coming up with a list of bests as deemed by Starwood Preferred Guest members which is to say that they are the hotels that best satisfy members and meet their needs (which is going to incorporate quality but also convenience of location and price point).

It’s an interesting methodology: What they did is they took the hotels with the highest customer survey ratings (“Guest Experience Index”), the best ratings and reviews on the Starwood website, and the most award nights redeemed. These three categories were evenly weighted, though they removed the properties that had low scores on customer surveys and online reviews, so ultimately removed several frequently redeemed-for hotels.

Continue Reading »

ACT FAST: Amazing American AAdvantage Business Class Award Space to Europe Without Fuel Surcharges

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2015

All American Airlines hubs with London service have wide open business class award space on American’s non-stop flights for a minimum of 2 passengers most days next summer. That’s really rare.

Many flights are even available with four business class awards — including Los Angeles – London flights onboard American’s Boeing 777-300ERs.

Continue Reading »