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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.
Bilt Rewards – even if you don’t have their credit card, which lets you earn points for paying rent – has publicly launched the option for residents of participating buildings to have their on-time rent payments reported to their credit. This is expected to generate an average credit score increase of 60 points for those who opt in.
Hotels have tried to lock in the savings of not cleaning rooms during stays, even as guests have returned. So we’ve seen many hotels move away from daily housekeeping on a permanent basis, though some still let guests request housekeeping during their stay.
I checked in with the major hotel chains on their housekeeping policies. While there’s sometimes a gap between the policies and pronouncements of a chain and on-the-ground reality, Hyatt seems to be doing the most to require hotels to provide housekeeping. Even where chains say it’s supposed to be an option, it may not be.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club is offering up to a 40% bonus converting bank points to Avios through June 30, 2022.
Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’. These are revolutionary suites with doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space.
Right now there’s fantastic award availability booking for 2023. You can use this for travel from the U.S. to Doha and beyond to the Mideast, India, the Maldives and elsewhere.
Cathay Pacific will retire the Marco Polo Club brand. Instead of having a separate elite program (Marco Polo Club) and points program (Asia Miles) the two will be combined in July. This means big changes for the entry level status of the program, and potentially for their U.S. credit card as well.
After announcing a revenue-based frequent flyer program that they’re calling a cryptocurrency they’re trying to raise money direct from the public in the form of an investment kickstarter, with the promise of free travel, elite benefits and… free booze for investors?
There are many reasons be be skeptical of the effort even if they didn’t seem to be incorporating the worst elements of businesses like Avatar Airlines which take a sixteen year old’s dream carrier off of airliners.net and marry it with an SEC criminal complaint waiting to happen.
Last week I flew Austin – Washington Dulles and a flight attendant told me American was planning to start flying Austin – Washington National. She was sure of it! I explained the perimeter rule to her and how American cannot fly Austin – Washington National without the Department of Transportation assigning ‘beyond perimeter’ slots that are created in law. It turns out she’d heard this news from… a passenger.
That said sometimes there are real tidbits of news, or at least interesting opinions. So I thought I’d pass along these ‘pilot tidbits’ shared to twitter by serial airline newsbreaker JonNYC along with context for what they mean.
American Airlines is launching a new long haul Pacific route, Dallas to Auckland, complementing Qantas Dallas – Sydney service. They won’t restart Los Angeles – Auckland, though, and they’re dropping the idea of Dallas – Tel Aviv. The long-expect Seattle – Bangalore flight, which was supposed to be American’s first return to India, won’t happen until (at least) summer 2023 if it comes to fruition.
There are several more route changes as American adjusts its international strategy as well.
We’ve seen re-launches of several hotel programs during the pandemic. Smaller programs like GHA Discovery and Shangri-La Circle are brand new. GHA, which has around 500 hotels but is adding several hundred more, was just a benefits program – but now offers cash rebates to spend at their properties (‘Discovery Dollars’). I really wish I had more opportunities to stay with both chains.
IHG Rewards has branded as IHG One Rewards – the one meant to signal that they’ve now ‘unified’ their brands, with all new elite benefits that even apply at Kimpton and Intercontinental hotel properties. With all these changes, which program is best?
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 »
