Windbag Miles

Note: this is the sequel to a post I wrote a few days ago. Read that one first if you haven’t yet. Before we start, I will admit that I don’t know all that much about Marc Andreessen, and I’m not judging him as much as I’m using a tweet he made as evidence toContinue reading “Dear Marc Andreessen, way to prove my point you gasbag”

In general, it’s never a good idea to buy miles you don’t have an immediate use for, unless the opportunity staring you in the face is uncommonly good and unlikely to be repeated (such as the SPG deal I got in on a few months ago that included a 50% bonus on purchased miles thatContinue reading “What would I have to do to get you into some Flying Blue miles?”

United rolled out Basic Economy fares today, which you already know because you come here for my hot takes, not to read breaking news. I’m not going to summarize the non-perks, but I do think it would be neat if airlines started thinking a little more creatively about how to offer different passenger experiences acrossContinue reading “United’s Basic Economy underscores how sucky it is when airlines give up on being creative.”

I’ve been keeping an eye on hotel prices in New York, since I have a trip coming up in a few weeks, and I want to see if any good hotel deals open up. If anything looks especially good, I might cancel the points bookings I made and book a revenue stay instead. While surfingContinue reading “Dynamic Hotel Pricing in Action (I promise I’ll write about something other than Hyatt soon)”

One of the key innovations in linguistics is the idea that language doesn’t have any inherent or universal meaning. Individual words are “signifiers,” and the concept that they evoke is a “signified” – the link between the two is an agreed-upon cultural fact. (This signifier/signified duality was first identified by Ferdinand de Saussure in theContinue reading “What does Citizens United have to do with World of Hyatt anyway?”

My professional life has been tied to the outdoor recreation industry ever since I dropped out of grad school in comparative literature and took a minimum wage job at a bike shop in southern California thirteen years ago. That means that I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in Salt Lake City, which hosts the bi-annualContinue reading “I’m conflicted about not going to Salt Lake City twice a year for the rest of my life”

It’s old news by now that Hyatt is relaunching their loyalty program under the “World of Hyatt” banner, including a realignment of elite benefits across four new tiers. Where it used to be a simple member/platinum/diamond hierarchy, it’s now split into “Member,” then “Discoveratrix,” then “Exploratoire,” and finally “Globalickity.” How they came up with thoseContinue reading “Hyatt offers me a soft landing into my stupid new World of Hyatt Discoveratrix status”

It’s old news by now that Hyatt is relaunching their loyalty program under the “World of Hyatt” banner, including a realignment of elite benefits across four new tiers. Where it used to be a simple member/platinum/diamond hierarchy, it’s now split into “Member,” then “Discoveratrix,” then “Exploratoire,” and finally “Globalickity.” How they came up with thoseContinue reading “Hyatt offers me a soft landing into my stupid new World of Hyatt Discoveratrix status”

Man, you learn something new every day! In a funny coincidence, one of the most-viewed posts on this blog is about redeeming Alaska miles for a flight between New York and Vancouver on Cathay Pacific, with a dollop of poststructuralism on top just to keep it interesting… and now Cathay is back to surprise meContinue reading “Wait hang on… Aeroplan miles can be redeemed on Cathay Pacific???”

I remember that I took a survey a while back about changes I would like to see to Amex’s concierge service, and the fruits of that customer research must be coming to fruition now with Amex’s new “Ask Amex” service that they’re rolling out. (I also took a really meta survey about what I wantContinue reading “Did anyone else get an invite to the “Ask Amex” pilot program?”