There’s nothing new about discounted hotel rates available only to members of the hotel’s loyalty program who book direct. Of the major chains, Starwood was the first to offer member-only rates, beginning last year. And Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and InterContinental have since followed suit. Such rates, in short, have become a go-to tactic in hotel…
On Friday evening—traditional timing for bad-news announcements that companies hope will go unnoticed by the public and unreported by the media—American published the new mileage-earning rates, effective from August 1, for travel on AAdvantage partner airlines. As the timing would suggest, there’s more bad news than good news for AAdvantage members. While earning rates for…
Enter the Williams-Sonoma “Trip to Spain” sweepstakes by August 19, 2016, for a chance to win the grand prize: a six-night trip to Spain for two, including air, accommodations, meals at two Michelin-starred restaurants, a cooking lesson, winery visits, and city tours. Related: Win a 7-Night MasterChef Caribbean Cruise for 2 To enter, provide the…
Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week. If it was a good deal—or a notably bad deal—from an airline, hotel, or car rental loyalty program, you can read all about it here, and plan your travel accordingly. No U.S. Airlines Among the…
At this week’s Farnborough Airshow, airline-rating service Skytrax announced the results of its 2016 World Airline Survey, rating more than 200 of the world’s airlines from best to worst. The rankings were based on responses to 19.2 million customer surveys. Skytrax boasts that it uses sophisticated data-weighting algorithms to compensate for different sample sizes, and…
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill extending authorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, which would otherwise expire on July 15. The bill is expected to be approved by the Senate as well. Related: Hotel Booking: How to Get the Best Deal In addition to funding current FAA programs through September 30,…
J.D. Power this week released results of its 2016 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, the 20th in its series of annual reviews of traveler satisfaction. The study measures consumer satisfaction in seven areas—reservations, check-in/check-out, guest room, food and beverage, hotel services, hotel facilities, cost and fees—across eight hotel segments, including luxury, midscale, economy/budget,…
In 2014, when JetBlue launched Mint, its premium lie-flat service, between New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was mostly seen as a limited response to the premium services offered by the full-service carriers on those especially competitive routes. But then JetBlue added Mint service between Boston and Seattle. And Boston and Barbados.…
How much is a monopoly worth? Plenty, for sure. But it’s no easy matter to precisely quantify its value in any particular situation. Which makes United’s latest 8-K regulatory filing a matter of some interest. But first, a little background… With control of around 75 percent of the airport’s flight capacity, United has enjoyed near-monopoly…
TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) is the undisputed king of hotel user reviews. This week, it begins its quest to attain the same status in the realm of airline flight reviews. Beginning yesterday, TripAdvisor users were invited to share their qualitative and quantitative assessments of their airline experiences. Other users will be able to read the…
While American’s AAdvantage program and US Airways’ Dividend Miles program were consolidated into a single program more than a year ago, following the American-US Airways merger, the question of which of the two programs’ credit-card partnerships would remain in place was left unresolved. Would it be Citi, which has issued co-branded AAdvantage cards since 1987?…