A few weeks ago an article was going around,’3 radical ideas to totally disrupt air travel’. I’ve seen it half a dozen times again today in my Facebook feed and have had three people send it to me as well.
Prohibiting carryon bags, allowing passengers to resell their seats and tickets, and giving out surprise and delight items to passengers stuck in a middle seat aren’t actually that revolutionary or event all that good…
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.
You can bring mini-bottles of alcohol through security. But you cannot open them and drink them on a plane. You can buy alcohol post-security, such as at duty free. But you cannot open the bottles and drink them on a plane.
It is a violation of federal law to drink alcoholic beverage onboard an an aircraft unless served by the airline. Airlines have the option of serving you the alcohol you bring onboard yourself, but that’s entirely at their discretion (and the discretion of the flight attendants on any given flight). So don’t count on it.
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.
Hyatt has extended the Diamond “Guest of Honor” benefit. When a Diamond member redeems points for someone else’s award stay, that person will receive Diamond benefits for the stay.
That way Diamond members can treat their family and friends to the same kind of experience with Hyatt that they receive themselves. I love the idea of letting Diamond members give their friends and family the same Hyatt experience that they have, it lets them share their love for the brand in a way they can be proud of. Having a spouse, child, or good friend taken care of I think really reinforces a connection that’s more than transactional.
Last week I speculated that an American Express Centurion lounge was coming to LAX. Following up with American Express I got something of a non-denial denial (“Nothing official,” emphasis mine).
Well, the airport is confirming it. In fact, per Brian Sumers, it’s in the airport’s October “Terminal Operations Center” newsletter.
Back in September, an online chat I hosted with Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell broke the news that Hyatt would be bringing the ability to search for cash and points awards online “sometime during the four quarter of 2015 or first quarter of 2016.”
That functionality is now live. They’ve also added the ability to upgrade paid stays to a Regency Club or Grand Club room using points.
Republican Governor Scott Walker, who dropped out of the Presidential race, pays 27% interest on his credit card debit.
We know that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie put $1 million in travel spend on his state American Express card. That’s bonus category spend! But we don’t know the exact charges because a court ruled the statements don’t have to be released, since doing so could ‘compromise security’.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has his own credit card problems.
In the simplest version, just know that the basic earning in a revenue-based frequent flyer program has required 20 cents a mile to break even with a mileage-based earning system. And passengers aren’t paying the airlines an average of 20 cents a mile to fly.
Of course, when airlines have switched to revenue-based mileage earning it’s been worse than this — fewer miles award on average, but they’ve also taken the opportunity to diminish the value of the miles you do earn. And that puts the lie to the idea that they’re “rewarding high value customers.” They’re not, they’re only devaluing high value customers less.
But let’s look at the actual numbers for American’s expected plan for a year from now…
You can make your own Donald Trump rewards credit card.. that earns double points on travel and dining!
Most rewards cards are weak and they’re ineffective. Nobody builds cards like Donald Trump, believe me. He knows all the smartest people. It will have the best benefits. And he’ll get the banks to pay for it.
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 »
