The Best of the Rest is my effort to summarize all the travel/miles & points stories that interested me on a daily basis but didn’t have time to write about in length. Culled from over 100 blogs/authors I follow, some are passed along without comment, while I add my analysis to others. This is your shortcut to find out what’s going on in the travel world without having to read dozens of travel blogs to get all the best info.
TSA PreCheck
Great Double Dip For Hyatt And Southwest And Cheap Flights To South America
The Best of the Rest is my effort to summarize all the travel/miles & points stories that interested me on a daily basis but didn’t have time to write about in length. Culled from over 100 blogs/authors I follow, some are passed along without comment, while I add my analysis to others. This is your shortcut to find out what’s going on in the travel world without having to read dozens of travel blogs to get all the best info. Here’s what I’m reading about today: Cheap Flights of The Day: Wow. JetBlue has […]
Customer Service Really Shouldn’t Be This Hard
We’ve all had frustrating customer service experiences, sometimes almost daily. In this case, I likely wouldn’t have given it a second thought, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have ended up on the blog. But, my feeble mind forgot that I had already dealt with the issue I was being excluded for.
The (Small) Silver Lining Of SPG’s New Suite Night Alternatives
In case you missed the announcement recently, Starwood Preferred Guest announced alternatives for folks who stayed more than 50 nights last year but wanted an alternative to Suite Night Awards. The choices themselves weren’t that compelling: 10 Suite Night Awards (status quo) 4 free Uber rides (up to $25 each) Gold status to gift to a friend or family member TSA PreCheck reimbursement $100 Amazon gift card $100 Donation to UNICEF in your name I’m working on a post about the overall value of the SPG program but someone reminded […]
Starwood Announces Their Suite Night Alternatives
A few years ago, Starwood Preferred Guest introduced a new concept called Suite Night Awards. These were targeted at frequent travelers who stayed more than 50 nights a year with SPG. They were meant to help improve the upgrade process, giving elites the ability to apply a Suite Night award to those reservations where an upgrade was most important. It didn’t guarantee an upgrade, but SPG added significant plumbing to increase the likelihood the upgrades would clear, even going so far as to get involved in the inventory management process a […]
I’m A Member Of CLEAR Again
For those unaware, CLEAR was a program that pre-dated TSA PreCheck and allowed for a “skip the line pass”. You still needed to go through traditional security screening, but you were pushed to the front of the line. It started 2005-ish and perished about 4 years later. It was purchased out of bankruptcy and restarted, though with significantly less airports than before. I was lucky enough to purchase a renewal for my wife and I just a month or so before they declared bankruptcy. The company that bought their assets out […]
TSA Pre-Check Rolling Out To International Carriers
The TSA announced Air Canada would be the first international carrier accepted into the PreCheck process, with more international carriers to come. This should markedly increase the number of experienced travelers in the PreCheck lanes, which is good for all travelers.
News & Notes For Sunday, August 4th, 2013
Some nuggets from the world of travel: Alaska Airways is rolling out boarding from both the front and back doors of their planes at some airports. This is probably a tougher policy to maintain in Seattle with the number of wet days they have overall, but makes sense at airports like San Jose and Long Beach. View From The Wing talks about quintuple dipping with Marriott Rewards. I’m not a Marriott fan myself but good strategies here if you are. Boeing is buying used Airbus planes from customers in order […]
