Monthly Archives for August 2023.
Air France KLM insists Flying Blue won’t be spun off. CEO Ben Smith was President of Air Canada when their relationship with Aimia which ran the spun-off Aeroplan program went south, and the carrier laid out plans to bring the loyalty program back in house. While some analysts see spinning off loyalty programs as a way of ‘unlocking value’ in fact spinoffs create frictions which destroy value.
A reader, Tommy, reached out surprised by American Airlines charging 250,000 miles for a business class award to Tokyo on a flight the next day with plenty of seats available. I’ve flagged that, though American’s new Flight Awards chart that shows ‘starting at’ pricing is supposed to give members an idea of what to expect, for international business class especially the price American is asking for awards often would make even Delta blush.
But that’s not all you need to know.
Many hotel chains have moved from single use plastic toiletries to bulk wall-mounted toiletries. They say it’s for the environment, but it isn’t. If they just cared about reducing plastic, they’d move to single use biodegradable packaging. Instead these refillable bottles are cheaper.
There are (3) basic problems with this for the guest.
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.
Too many restrictions, too long to wait to benefit, but all of those are in place of course to limit the cost to the airline of offering this. You get to use the discount in a short window (breakage) and that window is during an expected lull in travel (when there are seats they wouldn’t sell at full price) – all while ensuring most that take advantage of the discount will be buying a ticket they probably wouldn’t have otherwise. So they hope to drive incremental revenue now, and also at time of redemption, while offering those jumping through their hoops a good deal.
In two weeks, Frontier Airlines ticket counters will “will close for check in and bag drop” 60 minutes prior to departure. You can no longer check bags (even for a fee!) or even check in with a person within an hour of your flight.
He’d made a nonrefundable booking using Chase points to attend a wedding at what seemed like “the cheapest hotel from a reliable..brand” and found “an active construction site” with rooms covered “in plastic wrap,” constant drilling and a closed restaurant – none of which was disclosed on the property’s website. And oh that toilet.
While most of the media around former President Trump’s Save America PAC centers on their paying $20 million dollars in legal fees, there’s a nugget buried in their travel expenses that shows the political committee also violates airline rules when purchasing tickets.
Save America’s disclosure form shows them covering a fee to Skiplagged, the website that assists in booking throwaway or hidden city tickets.
Bilt Rewards is back with Rent Day and for some members this will be the most lucrative one yet by a wide margin. They have the usual offers of free points for trivia questions, double points on their credit card, and an opportunity to your rent paid for. But this is also the first time they’ve added an elite status benefit as part of Rent Day transfer bonus.
The first of each month is extra rewarding.
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.
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 »
