More Odds And Ends On A Quiet Sunday, June 8, 2014
Some more items of note on a quite Sunday:
John at Loyalty Lobby is reporting that some folks are having their IHG accounts closed because they registered for promotions that weren’t targeted for. There may be more to this story, as John also brings up people who were managing multiple IHG accounts and getting targeted for closure. That strikes me as much more significant that registering for a promo you weren’t targeted for. I also think it’s unlikely that your account will be closed if you register for one promo you didn’t qualify for; these are likely serial defenders. With e-mail filtering, it’s easy to not receive a notification from a program about a promo you might qualify for. It would seem to be an achievable feat to make the registration page ping a database to see if you’re register and eliminate this sort of issue completely.
View From The Wing gets to the point I was thinking yesterday when I read online that Uber had raised another chunk of cash. I just don’t buy that Uber is worth $18 billion today. Nor do I believe Airbnb is worth more than Hyatt Hotels. From an investor perspective you try to invest money in a company at a valuation that allows the company to grow so you can make money. That means folks like Fidelity and Google Ventures likely believe Uber is worth more than $18 billion, since they’re still buying shares in a company with no near-term prospects for return on investment. As Gary says, they’re betting Uber will be successful somewhere else or grow like mad in their current sector. I’m not a buyer.
Points, Miles and Martinis details a 50% off coach award promo Air France is featuring for travel to/from Europe in June and August. It’s only on specific routes, but worth taking a look at. It may even be worth paying for a cheap positioning flight to get to Europe this summer cheaply.
If you can afford to stay at luxury upscale hotel chain Rosewood Hotels, they’re offering a free night special at specific properties. HT: newscience on Milepoint
Yeah I saw that post about the IHG account shutdowns. I’ve never signed up for a ton of promos but I’ve certainly thought about it. It definitely makes me think twice about it but you’re probably right that it’s the super outliers.
Still, like you point out, how hard would it be to check if you’re targeted for a promotion before allowing it? Seems super easy….
Dan, there are so many things we could list that would be more affordable for airlines and hotels to fix versus the cost associated with the mistake in real dollars or drops in customer service.