Tag Archives for houston.
Taiwan-based EVA Air, a member of the Star Alliance, operates a bus route. In Texas. Sadly, the service ends August 31.
The termination of this bus service actually makes previously-booked paid travel between Houston and Taipei refundable, because you might have relied on the free bus to Dallas.
Perhaps the room just isn’t used very much and doesn’t get a lot of attention. Or perhaps they only assign it as an upgrade on one night stays, and it’s rarely paid for (or hasn’t been in a long time), and so on one night stays no one bothers to complain – they’re leaving anyway. So without guests letting the hotel know about maintenance issues, those issues don’t get addressed.
I fell victim to this myself – I didn’t stop at the desk on the way out, so didn’t complain about the condition of the room.
The Houston airport C1 club did one thing that made all the difference.
Southwest Airlines operates 89% of flights and 92% of seats out of Houston Hobby airport this month, according to schedule data from Cirium. They have suspended inflight alcohol service indefinitely. So everyone is pre-gaming according to state alcohol sales data.
A comic book store in Houston, the Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstor, is suing the Crowne Plaza hotel next door for negligence because of all of the indignities our superheroes have had to endure from the IHG property’s guests. And they’ve put their suit in the form of an actual comic book, filed with the Harris County courts.
The largest U.S. domestic airline is already a significant player in both the Houston and Chicago markets. They’re doubling down by extending service to a second airport in each city. Just as they’re taking American Airlines head on in Miami, they’ll be taking on United (Houston Intercontinental) and United and American (Chicago O’Hare) at those major carrier hubs.
The City of Houston had a hiring freeze – no new police, first responders in the event of floods – but managed to create a new $95,000 a year internship for someone the Mayor has “a past working relationship” with, after initially claiming to have no idea who the intern was. The position allows the candidate to decide for themselves whether to stay on at the conclusion of the 12- to 18-month internship.
Curiously, the $95,000 internship isn’t at George Bush International Airport (IAH) or Houston Hobby (HOU) but at general aviation Houston Municipal Airport.
Bare feet on a plane are so controversial that a passenger with smelly feet drove another so nuts that he got stabbed on arrival.
That was clearly taking matters too far, but sticking bare feet into another passenger’s space or clipping toenails on board is clearly beyond the pale.
I’m just back from Tokyo and Shanghai. My wife and I flew to Asia on a Virgin Atlantic 120,000 mile roundtrip ANA first class award. It’s one of the better value redemptions in all of travel — United would charge 220,000 miles roundtrip for the same thing, Aeroplan 210,000 miles, and Avianca LifeMiles 204,000. ANA itself charges 150,000 miles roundtrip.
And it turns out the deal is even better than that because most of the points for these two tickets came from American Express Membership Rewards transfers — when there was a transfer bonus. I called up Virgin Atlantic, put the award on a 24 hour hold, and then transferred the points. Not bad for a roundtrip ticket that was pricing at $22,907 apiece.
The government confiscated $41,000 on the jetway from a 59 year old nurse departing Houston back in October. She was never charged with a crime.
The woman, a US citizen living in the Houston suburb of Katy, had taken her savings with her to start a medical clinic in Nigeria. She was bringing medical equipemnt and supplies on the flight along with the cash. Customs and Border Protection stopped her during boarding.
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 »
