Search Results for "ASIA".
Last year, when relatively few people were going out, Capital One offered to send cardmembers Michelin-starred dinners. Then over the summer they offered a series of Michelin restaurant experiences worth flying to in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Northern Virginia.
For the winter they’re back with another three Michelin restaurant experiences as part of their “Capital One x MICHELIN Guide Destination Dinner Series.”
Annual trend recap pieces usually wait until the end of the year but am I tempting fate too much to call it largely a wrap on 2021?
With travel frequently doubling last year’s levels each day, and approaching parity with 2019 around the leisure-heavy holiday period, we’re back in the skies and putting our heads down on hotel beds. With far more hassle like vaccine paperwork and testing, international travel is returning though much of Asia Pacific remains tough. And travel companies – and their bank partners – are hungry for your business.
The Marriott Bonvoy program is, on paper at least, head and shoulders above the Hilton Honors and IHG Rewards offerings. Those other two don’t even guarantee late check-out, let alone promise that suite upgrades will be provided when a standard suite is available.
In practice, though, Bonvoy doesn’t live up to its promises.
The value of frequent flyer miles is something I’ve been calculating for years. I think what makes my approach different is I lay out the theory behind my valuations, I explain a lot of the moving pieces, and I present a comparison between my valuations and the valuations others are giving. I first laid this out the value of frequent flyer miles in 2014 and then updated values in 2016, 2017 and 2019. I skipped 2020 due to the pandemic but a tremendous amount has changed. Air Canada launched a new program with the same name (raising redemption prices but eliminating fuel surcharges), Delta and United devalued partner awards more than once, Capital One launched transferrable points mostly at 1:1, and new program Bilt entered the transferable points space – to name just a few…
Southwest is in the news after a flight attendant reported a white mother traveling with her 10 year old biracial daughter as “suspicious.” The mother was investigated as a sex trafficker.
Prompted by my writing about wide open availability for two first class Suites awards on the Singapore Airlines New York JFK – Frankfurt flight, a reader asks about other ‘fifth freedom routes’ between the U.S. and Europe.
They wanted to fly between the U.S. and Europe on an Asian or Middle Eastern carrier and wanted to know what their options looked like using miles for the best seats possible.
It’s one thing to say that American Airlines doesn’t want a $15,000 a year flyer, who doesn’t also engage in the program in other ways, to have top status – since those other activities are often more profitable to American.
It’s another, I think, to say that whole classes of members are shut off from much of the new program based on their geography, or that new millennial flyers they supposedly want to attract have a higher hurdle to clear for status than older business travelers who last had to meet standard criteria for status in 2019.
With Marriott extending everyone’s elite status for next year, there are plenty of members getting a status gift – recognizing that once-loyal guests haven’t had their business travel start back up, and especially those whose travels normally taken them abroad including to Asia.
On the other hand there are members who have spent countless nights with their head in beds in 2021. They’ve given Marriott their stays and it turns out they didn’t need to do this in order to keep their elite tier for 2022.
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.
Air Canada Aeroplan has a very easy and generous status match offer for U.S. frequent flyers. Match your status, and then a single roundtrip will let you keep the status through 2022.
For Americans – and anyone outside of Canada – the spend requirements for earning status are doubling. Aeroplan has allowed those whose primary address is outside of Canada to earn elite status with half the requirements that Canadians face. For 2022 they’re eliminating this easier path to status.
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 »
