This week we learn that Loganair is going to adopt Avios, a driverless taxi became the “spinning wheel of doom” for a poor passenger in LA, the president has stepped in to end resort fees, and British Airways apparently has a Best Rate Guarantee policy! Read more below.
If that “Loganair” name feels familiar to you, it might be because our very own Stephen Pepper flew the world’s shortest flight via Loganair during the 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge. Since it’s going to adopt the Avios program for its loyalty setup in 2025, that shortest flight (from Westray to Papa Westray) should earn you Avios…but how many I wonder?
Well here’s a nightmare for you (which unfortunately was the reality for one poor passenger recently). It’s bad enough when human taxi drivers take the long way to the airport to juice the meter a little bit, but a diver-less “Waymo” vehicle holding you hostage spinning in circles in a parking lot is another kind of awful. And to turn this into a full blown dystopian commentary on the dangers of the inhuman, the passenger complained that the customer service person he talked to seemed more like an AI bot. We are truly living in the future, and it’s not always bright.
New Federal Rule Will Force Hotels to Disclose Resort Fees
This is good news for those of us who have been griping about undisclosed resort fees (and other weird, obscure fees,) invented just to squeeze the lemon. Around March, new federal regulations should kick in to force properties to disclose their fees clearly. This will apparently apply not just to the checkout process, but also advertising as well. I’m interested to see how this will impact Airbnb cleaning fees, which may fall in that category. When I worked as an Airbnb host, I always added cleaning fees because I was indeed paying a cleaner (typically more than the cleaning fee itself) and that cleaning fee felt like a fair and common sense way to balance out my cleaner’s time, and make sure a short stay wouldn’t be a wash for me. HOWEVER, it definitely frustrated me that Airbnb didn’t disclose that fee until the final screen. (At least that was the case back when I was doing it, though I heard this changed later). Guests would message me an inquiry, then express frustration that I hadn’t disclosed the price properly…but I didn’t determine how the price got displayed – Airbnb did that. All in all, this seems like an obvious good.
How does the British Airways Best Price Guarantee work?
Drew and I used to do hotel “Best Rate Guarantees” often. For example if I’m remembering correctly, the IHG Best Rate Guarantee used to give you a free night onto your stay if you identified a better rate on a third party site…including 1 night stays. We loved these “BRG’s”. But what I didn’t realize is that apparently British Airways has a Best Price Guarantee as well! I didn’t know airlines did this kind of thing, so I certainly didn’t know that British Airways did. The gist of their Best Rate Guarantee is that if you find the same flight you just booked (that day) elsewhere on the web for cheaper than British Airways’ own website, they’ll give you a British Airways voucher for the difference (or double up to £200 if you are a member of the Executive Club.) That seems pretty generous, though if it’s anything like the hotel BRG’s, it can be tricky making sure your adhering to all the terms. For hotels, it was making sure the room type was exactly the same. For British Airways there are of course sticking points as well, like making sure the flight you’re comparing isn’t a codeshare partner with a different flight number, and making sure the currencies are the same.
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Best regards to my old friend Drew