Tag Archives for new york.
The hotel workers union in New York City yields outsized political influence, blocking projects that would turn hotels into residential housing or homeless shelters. That helps keep rents high and people on the streets, but protects jobs. It also ruins hotels.
At an internal employee meeting earlier in the month, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, Chief Commercial Offer Vasu Raja shared that Advantage enrollments in New York are outpacing nearly every other market in the system., and that more people are qualifying for status in New York than before “and 65% are doing it on the card.”
The hotel is well-located. It is quiet, as they seem not to have the entire property open. My room was clean and comfortable. It used to be one of the best for elite treatment, but with the club closed no restaurant for breakfast it no longer is. Still, when this is where you need to be in the city and the price is right – it was less than 1/3 the cost of the nearby Andaz 5th Avenue for instance – it can be the right choice.
The Justice Department’s case against American-JetBlue was weak. A Spirit acquisition could make it stronger. But it’s still not a slam dunk. The Justice Department might say to JetBlue ‘drop the American Airlines alliance as a condition of our approval of the Spirit acquisition.’
A new credit card rewards consumer protection law has been signed by the governor after passage this summer. Starting one year from now it will help customers who cancel a card – or have a card closed on them by the issuer for lack of use – to still use their points.
The second U.S. case of the Omicron variant has been identified and it tells us something we all should have already known: It’s spreading in the U.S. It was here early than we thought. It’s not just something to keep out of the country.
At an employee Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, November 12 at LaGuardia airport, American Airlines Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja shared how the airline is thinking about the New York market going forward. Here are 8 observations he offered about what’s changing for American in New York.
The New York Hilton and Grand Hyatt New York are both re-opening, the former on October 4 and the latter November 1.
While there was a logic in providing services to travelers during the summer, preparing to do so as a hotel heads into Northeast winter – traditionally a down time for business to begin with – may seem odd. The decision to do so now has nothing to do with anticipated return of business travel. Instead, there’s a simple reason to re-open now.
On Thursday and Friday New York City executed an operation to seize vehicles being rented out as lodging on Airbnb. The vans were often advertised for around $100, lacked bathroom or shower facilities, and racked up tickets for being illegally parked. Guests would receive keys to get into the vans for sleeping, but those keys didn’t start the engines. The law enforcement operation was dubbed “Operation Room Service.”
This is a case where customers actually benefit, competitors don’t like it, and whether the Justice Department realizes it or not they’re carrying water for cronyist corporate interests and not passengers.
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 »
