Hertz charges a man $519 for accidentally going through a $1 toll, Vancouver will give you up to CA$250 to pay it a visit and an airline CEO gets a shirtless massage…during a management meeting. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to each article are embedded in the titles).
Vancouver wants to pay you to visit
Vancouver has one of the most scenic locations of any major city in North America. Ringed by snow-capped mountains and surrounded by water, it’s like the sexy lovechild of Hong Kong and Alaska. It’s got terrific food, tons of activities and one of the best urban park systems in the world. If that wasn’t enough to get you to visit, here’s one more reason: they’ll pay you. Every year, the awkwardly named Vancouver Hotel Destination Association (VHDA) runs a promotion that gives folks a Mastercard gift card when they stay at one of a few dozen downtown hotels. The only condition is that you have to stay for two nights and the stay has to take place between mid-October and the end of February (for the uninitiated, this part of the year is not known for beach weather). The amount of the free gift card varies from property to property and is either CA$100, CA$150, CA$200, or CA$250. The promotion can be used up to three times and you get the gift card upon checking into the hotel, the idea being that you then get to spend it painting the town red maple leaf. Of course, anyone who’s every gone out for a drink in British Columbia knows that $100 will buy you about three beers, but it’s better than a kick in the toque. Loyalty Lobby has the details.
Air Canada Aeroplan Laying Down the Smack on Schemers
In other Canadian news, Air Canada Aeroplan is on the warpath. Within the last couple of years, the it has significantly reinvented itself as a means of getting its foot in the door to the North American airline loyalty program goldmine. As part of this, it took the unprecedented step of allowing Chase Aeroplan cardholders to redeem their miles like cash in order to reimburse travel purchases at 1.25 cents each. It didn’t put a limit on how many miles could be redeemed in this way and allowed sharing of miles between “family members,” a combination that had many of us raising our eyebrows. We were promised that they’d be on the lookout for “program abuse,” without spelling out exactly what sort of chicanery they’d be watching out for. And, like the Lannisters, Aeroplan always pays its debts. Earlier this year, it shut down many accounts due to folks transferring points into Aeroplan from other issuers like Amex, then buying refundable travel, canceling and cashing out (there’s now terms expressly forbidding it). In August, it suspended family sharing, saying that there was rampant abuse and, *gasp*, people were transferring miles in massive amounts to non-family members. Now, in the flyertalk thread linked above, there are tales of another wave of shutdowns for rewards abuse. Mind your p’s and q’s, eh. Aeroplan’s watching.
Airline CEO gets shirtless massage during management meeting
Every boss has their quirks regarding how they run meetings. We just had our annual FM Team get-together and Greg likes to keep things laissez-faire and casual, usually sporting a pair of recently-acquired hotel slippers and several bags of M&Ms. Tony Fernandes evidently likes a similar, if somewhat more naked, vibe. Last week, the CEO of AirAsia posted a photo of himself shirtless at a conference room table during a meeting. In the photo, there is a masseuse helping him get the kinks out. He posted this photo on Linkedin because…well, I can’t really imagine why. He received some criticism from folks who thought that women in his company wouldn’t feel comfortable within that context, an astute observation that still fails to point out how awkward the men working in his company probably felt as well. Another commenter applauded Fernandes for “being an agent of change in the body positivity movement,” a commendable cause whose annual meeting I’ll probably stay away from this year.
Hertz and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad $519 toll bill
Last week we got an e-mail from a reader named Chris, who told us about an experience with Hertz that left him “fuming.” Chris had rented a car from Hertz for four weeks in Connecticut. He was unaware that his car was equipped with PlatePass, Hertz’ all-inclusive toll system that charges you a set daily rate for all tolls and administrative fees. It’s usually a terrible deal and, worse, must be paid for the entire length of rental, even for days that you don’t go through tolling stations. Chris said that no one told him about PlatePass, that he never had the option to decline it, or that it would automatically activate for the whole four-week rental, even if he only went through one toll booth. Unfortunately, he unknowingly went through one, $1 toll. A couple of weeks after he returned the rental, he got a bill from Hertz for $519.80, the cost for 28 days of PlatePass. Talk about highway robbery. Gary at View from the Wing wrote up Chris’ story and added some good tips about how to keep your money out of Hertz’ pocket when renting cars in the Northeast.
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Best way to keep your money out of Hertz’s pockets is to rent from either the Avis/Budget group or National/Enterprise group or an independent chain like Sixt. There’s enough horror stories disproportionately about Hertz that I’m just in the “I’ll never rent from Hertz. Period. Ever.” camp.
Please add the links to the blog material that you reference. I get it that they are your competition but when you say Gary at VFTW has tips to keep your money out of Hertz’ hands you are just creating frustration for your reader by not linking to the article.
The links are all in the bolded titles (which is noted in the first paragraph).
If a nun ever gives you a choice, take the whack on the hands.
Great list with highly entertaining commentary. More please.