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Alaska Airlines Status After Just Two Roundtrips

Airlines will frequently give you elite status if you have status with a competitor in order to make it easier to move your business.

Alaska Airlines in particular is quite aggressive, they will even match to their top tier MVP Gold 75K level when you email with proof of your existing status.

They also have a new offer out that does not require you to be a current elite flyer, just someone that has plans to fly cross country a few times.

Continue reading Alaska Airlines Status After Just Two Roundtrips...

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Hilton Wants to Give You 90 Days of Free Gold or Diamond Status

Have an important stay coming up where elite status — club lounge access or breakfast, a room upgrade — would be nice? Hilton will give you free 90 days of status if you have elite status with any chain.

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What’s Grosser than Gross in an Airline Meal, and Spending the Night With American Airlines

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.

Continue reading What’s Grosser than Gross in an Airline Meal, and Spending the Night With American Airlines...

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What Marriott’s CEO Thinks of the Bonvoy Name and the New Rewards Program

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson famously dismissed customer frustrations with his chain's IT failures and problems delivering promised benefits as 'noise around the edges.'

During Marriott's earnings call the CEO addressed the new name for the loyalty program, how he sees it as part of the chain's strategy, and whether hotels are frustrated.

Continue reading What Marriott’s CEO Thinks of the Bonvoy Name and the New Rewards Program...

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SeaWorld’s Rebound and 3 Other Tourism Trends This Week

The Kraken roller coaster at SeaWorld. After years of disappointing results, the theme park is starting to recover. Josh Hallett / Flickr

Skift Take: This week in tourism, SeaWorld adds new roller coasters as it climbs back from the Blackfish scandal, the trade war with China hurts U.S. tourism, and destinations emphasize their health-oriented attractions as wellness tourism takes over.

— Isaac Carey

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New Big Delta Credit Card Initial Bonus Offers are Back (and Two are My Favorite Ever for the Cards)

American Express is running new limited time initial bonus offers for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card, Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, and Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express.

They seemingly used to run big offers for these cards all the time but we haven’t seem them nearly as often recently. And the offer for the Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express is my favorite one they’ve offered to date. So is the offer for the Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express. These limited time offers are valid through April 3, 2019.

Continue reading New Big Delta Credit Card Initial Bonus Offers are Back (and Two are My Favorite Ever for the Cards)...

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Lyft Aims to Reward Loyal Drivers While Going Public

A promotional image featuring a Lyft driver. Lyft

Skift Take: One of Lyft's major risk factors is the possibility of its drivers bailing to another competing service for some reason. This move will generate goodwill with the company's most loyal drivers, and others who are willing to buy into Lyft's long-term future.

— Andrew Sheivachman

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Rumor: American to Admit Defeat, Give Passengers More Space in Coach

In late 2017 American Airlines rolled out a new coach product. It featured less space than ever between seats (not just in coach, but less space for extra legroom coach and even for first class). There was less recline, too, and no seat back video. They found space for more seats by squeezing inches out of the lavatories. And they found space by taking padding out of the seats.

Not only was this new interior what's going into their new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, but they've been taking more comfortable Boeing 737-800s and ripping out those interiors to match what I've sometimes called "Torquemada configuration."

Continue reading Rumor: American to Admit Defeat, Give Passengers More Space in Coach...

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Trump SoHo Hotel Drove a Sales Boom by Changing Its Name

The redesigned lobby of the Dominick Hotel in New York City, which has seen its revenues soar after changing its name from Trump SoHo. The Dominick Hotel

Skift Take: Business turned around last year after Trump SoHo changed its name to The Dominick. The story shows the power of rebranding in a contentious age.

— Sean O'Neill

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American Airlines May Fly to Africa and India and 4 Other Aviation Trends This Week

American Airlines Boeing 787. The airline will expand service to Africa and India once its second batch of the Dreamliners arrives in 2020. Steve Lynes / Flickr

Skift Take: This week in aviation, American Airlines plans to use a new batch of Dreamliners to expand its routes, Delta and other U.S. airlines jostle for spots in Tokyo's very profitable Haneda airport, and Star Alliance may bulk up its loyalty program with non-airline perks.

— Isaac Carey

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Security State Run Amok: Government Distributes Terror Watch List to 1441 Private Organizations

The US government maintains a "No Fly List" and airlines are required to check passengers against it before allowing them to fly. They maintain other lists that trigger increased security screening and potentially harassment.

The lists are pre-crime profiling. Not even based on science. And it's also done very very poorly. People get on the list by mistake, because they're related to someone who is on it, or because they visited the wrong country in the wrong year. .

These are secret lists that people haven't been entitled to know they are on, how they got on, or to confront the evidence relied upon to put them on it. Legally there is very little recourse, and when challenged the government claims 'state secrets.'

Continue reading Security State Run Amok: Government Distributes Terror Watch List to 1441 Private Organizations...

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If You Ask Marriott If Your Data Was Stolen, Plan to Wait a Month to Hear Back

I've continued pressing Marriott for a timeline, how long it will take customers who have submitted even more information to them to find out if their data was part of the breach? They've finally shared Thirty. Days. And that's a 'goal'. They want you to know they are not breaking the law ('consistent with regulatory expectations') which is apparently their standard for customer service.

Continue reading If You Ask Marriott If Your Data Was Stolen, Plan to Wait a Month to Hear Back...

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Airbnb’s Response to Booking.com? We’ve Got More Listings

An Airbnb Plus listing from Barcelona. On Friday, Airbnb disclosed it now has more than 6 million listings worldwide. Airbnb

Skift Take: Airbnb to Booking: "Yeah, right."

— Deanna Ting

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How Business Class Suites are Regulated and New Options Coming to Redeem Star Alliance Miles

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.

Continue reading How Business Class Suites are Regulated and New Options Coming to Redeem Star Alliance Miles...

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Airbus May Assemble Newest Jet in China to Secure Far East Deals

An Airbus A330-800neo landing at Toulouse Blagnac airport following its first flight. Bloomberg

Skift Take: Planemaker Airbus may build A330neos at an existing factory in Tianjin. The offer to make the planes locally comes as Rolls-Royce is said to offer work at a local engine plant, too. But do the companies really believe they can protect their trade secrets if they make aircraft parts in China?

— Sean O'Neill

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Marriott Cites Growing Pains Following Data Breach, Labor Strikes

An alert on the now defunct SPG app for iOS, telling members about a security breach that impacted Starwood Preferred Guest members. Skift

Skift Take: Being bigger, Marriott is discovering, may not always be better in the short term. But if the company can weather a massive cyberattack and some debilitating labor strikes, the future shouldn't be nearly as challenging, executives hope.

— Deanna Ting

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American Airlines Updates Its ‘Flat Tire Rule’ to Help If You’re Late to the Airport

For many years there’s something that’s been referred to in airline parlance as the ‘flat tire rule’ — if you show up too late to get on your flight, your airline will put you on the next one without a penalty. After all, you may have had a flat tire on your way to the airport, why punish you further? Little is free in today’s airline world any more. In fact “standby” or wait listed travel is no longer free at most US airlines (and not all international ones offer it to begin with). At American Airlines only full fare passengers and elites can stand by for free, and that’s generally only for US travel — otherwise it costs $75 to stand by for an earlier flight. But what about when you miss your flight?…

Continue reading American Airlines Updates Its ‘Flat Tire Rule’ to Help If You’re Late to the Airport...