News and notes from around the interweb:
- This is unacceptable. The most basic thing a hotel provides is sleep accommodations. On this $700 stay the guest was initially offered 5,000 Marriott points as compensation for the guest reporting blood stains on the mattress, and they ‘argued’ up to 15,000. The mattress should have been changed when housekeeping first saw this, and failure to do so should forfeit the cost of the stay. Do you disagree?
- How Airline Miles Turned Into a Multibillion Dollar Currency a fringe marketing idea became the backbone of airline profits—and a gateway to global luxury travel. How deregulation gave us frequent flyer miles, and what could take it all away, my piece in the August/September 2025 Reason magazine. Enjoy!
Airlines would have to spend on marketing anyway. This way, they do it mostly by rebating value to the customer—and in a way where customers get something (travel) that they value more than it costs the provider to offer (especially since companies are frequently offering seats that would have gone unsold).
That’s great for the consumer, and it’s even better for the informed one who hunts for excess capacity that an airline is going to make available using miles. The best deals are frequently long-haul business and first class redemptions that you’ll find using your preferred airline’s partners around the world, who have the seats and make them available at the lowest prices.
- This is way better than Google. And by the way you can have it compare the products you’re considering, find you the best deal, and also compare shopping portal and other stackable offers (but it won’t find all current card-linked offers… yet).
TIL my wife is using ChatGPT to find coupon codes for web stores online. She said it works almost every time without ad-ridden websites filled with old codes—I’ve literally never once considered using an LLM for this but now it seems obvious.
— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyLabs) July 27, 2025
- Iran’s Republican Guard-linked Mahan Air acquired 5 ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 777s.
[N]ow under the ownership of Ion Aviation, a self-described aircraft brokerage service, relocated to Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport (LHW) in China. Before their eventual transfer to Iran, all five aircraft had moved to Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI) on July 4, 2025, or July 8, 2025.
Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange showed that on July 15, 2025, 5R-HER was on the move from SAI. Its transponder turned off just as the 777-200ER was about to enter Afghan airspace, according to the flight history provided by both flight tracking sites. The transponders of 5R-IJA, 5R-ISA, and 5R-RIS were also switched off as they were overflying Pakistan, according to ADS-B Exchange. 5R-IJA was inactive on the radar on July 15, 2025.
- Air Canada returned her missing suitcase, but it came back with a knife, toiletries and ticket scanner inside she complained she didn’t get compensated but that’s not true, she got a free knife.
- Dallas-area J.W. Marriott Resort awarded $25 million in grants and a $10 million loan against an estimated $325 project cost – ‘but wait, there’s more!’ another $49 million on the table…
That’s in addition to a battery of tax incentives the project will receive from the city, including a 75% reimbursement of sales, property and hotel occupancy taxes generated at the resort up to $18 million over 12 years.
The developer could also be awarded $31 million in state hotel occupancy, sales and alcohol tax collections generated by the property, subject to approval from the Texas Comptroller. If more than $31 million is awarded by the state, the developer would split those state tax collections it receives 50-50 with the city.
Sans blood, the Westin mattresses and bedding are usually quite nice for a 4-ish star hotel in most locations. After Gary’s recent review of the DEN airport Westin, I gave it a try, and it passed the test. Just skip the breakfast burrito because they charge extra for meat; go with the quesadillas (for the meat lovers, thankfully, it includes chorizo).
Gary, no post about the Citi Strata Elite yet? Went live yesterday; lots of goodies for American Airlines frequent flyers (they’ve brought back transfers from TY to AA). Plenty to gripe about, too (Prestige was clearly better with its 4th night free). Anyone else go for it already?
While the hotel should be ashamed of its lousy response to this critical and sanitary issue, Hyatt corporate should be even more ashamed to have this occur AND should give warning to the franchisee. Fight with your camera and your credit card. Dispute the charge with the credit card company. They will ask for a “reason”. Explain AND send the picture. One might also send a SNAIL MAIL letter to the local/state/city government health department, certified mail, return receipt. Yeah, that’s gonna take some effort. You are NOT looking for a “finger wag” at the hotel. You want to “bloody their nose” if you have to. I have a feeling that when corporate and the franchise see the “CERTIFIED RETURN RECEIPT” on their copy of the letter to the health department….!!! After all, you are the CUSTOMER.
OOPS…I meant Marriott…not Hyatt!
@1990 — Thank you for putting this on my radar yesterday! I was on the go but I was able to briefly take a look. After a more thorough look today it seems that $500 is easy to recoup (Hotel, Splurge). After that it’s fluff that I could go with or without so for all practical purposes its a matter of how much one values AA. Even so, doesn’t seem worth it intuitively to keep long term at least. But yes, curious to hear Gary and everyone else’s more informed opinions. I also much prefer getting credit for direct bookings — 80,000 points seems juicy, don’t have experience with Citi Travel.
Call me crazy, but who cares about mattress stains? They put sheets on them for a reason! Assuming the stain is dry, there’s no sanitation/hygiene issue.
Never mind, after reading the original post, Gary just did a horrible job of summarizing the actual complaint, which was blood stains on the bedding itself. Which the hotel failed to replace over 2 days. That’s definitely a comp stay.
gravity – how does it work?
how to stain a vertical surface……
that’s not blood, that’s mold
regardless, always check in at 4pm sharp so you can do the room inspection before the property management staff (person) leaves for the day
you are not getting a mattress change at 8pm
you want housekeeping to inspect the mattress of every room service after a checkout?
in the 21st corporate century?
@L737 — Some suggest attempting a 13-ish month ‘triple-dip’ strategy, open December 2025, quickly use those ‘calendar year’ credits in 2025, and also in 2026 and 2027, then close January 2027 within the requisite 30-days of annual fee hitting to get it back for the second year. If one pulls that off, for the $595 AF, you’re getting 80K SUB (worth at least $800), 3x $300 hotel benefit ($1,200), 3x $200 Splurge ($600), $400 Blacklane (because they break it down via the 6-mo segments, so Dec, Jan-June, July-Dec, Jan), and 8-12 Admirals Club passes (so, another $800-1,200 in possible ‘value’ but folks value those differently, ugh, starting to sound like TPG over here). You have to be a little ‘fanatic’ to even attempt all that; and the banks ‘hate’ those that try this, but the folks in-the-know play that ‘game’ all the time. They don’t call themselves ‘churners’ for no reason. It is all legit; still following ‘rules,’ but definitely ‘maximizing’ the benefits.
@1990 — I can’t believe it’s not butter! That all makes so much sense, thanks — I need to get into the mindset of adding churning to the calculus.