Have You Planned Your Summer Vacation Yet?

In the last couple years, consumers might want to wait until the last minute to plan their vacations because they bet they could find a better deal when hotels and airlines had difficulty in filling up their empty rooms or seats. This may not be the case in the summer of 2010. The Wall Street Journal (May 6; by Scott McCartney) suggested travelers to arrange their summer vacations now because of the following reasons:

1. The economy has shown signs of recovery (probably not in the European market for a while). Several recent indexes, including retail sales, company expense, consumer confidence, unemployment rate, and even hotel occupancy rates, are moving upwards.
2. Airline capacity has been reduced during recession. Even without the merger of Continental and United, consumers may find less available seats in the summer.
3. Gas price continues to climb, which further challenge airlines to lower fares.

The good news (for consumers, yet bad news for hotel owners) is that consumers may still find good deals in hotels. While statistics from Bing Travel, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and other travel service websites show two-digit increase in airline price during the summer, there is no sign of higher hotel price at this point. If you have not arranged your summer travel, probably it is time.

References:
McCartney, S. (2010, May 6). Hoping for a summer trip? Book now. The Wall Street Journal, p. D1 & D2.

Picture was downloaded from: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok05092010P

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United Airlines pushes economy-class travelers away with a new frequent flyer program

United Airlines just revealed massive changes to its MileagePlus Program. How much a traveler spends on the tickets is the only thing that matters in the airline’s new frequent flyer program.

Not long ago, United quietly switched from a distance-based reward program to a fare-based frequent flyer program. Since 2015, people earn mileages based on how much they spend on the air tickets instead of how far they fly.

For example, I typically earn about 4,000 reward miles for a round-trip ticket between Los Angeles and Asia, even though the distance of the trip usually ranges from 10,000 to 12,000 miles. Nevertheless, the distance I fly still matters because it will be counted towards the “qualified miles” for elite status.

Now, the airline wants to take a big step further to (only) reward those top-spending travelers as their elite customers.

The terms used in the current MileagePlus Program

There are four elite statuses in the United Airlines MileagePlus Program, including Premier Silver, …

Promoting student success in the STR Student Market Study Competition

I was in New York City (NYC) over the Veterans Day weekend for the HX: The Hotel Experience 2019, one of the most important trade shows in the lodging industry. Similar to last year’s trade show, the HX 2019 also entailed four components, including HX: The Marketplace, HX: The Conference, Boutique Design New York, and the STR (Smith Travel Research) Student Market Study Competition.

STR is the leading data analytics provider for the lodging industry. Since its debut in 2015, the STR Student Market Study Competition (the STR Competition hereafter) has received significant attention from the hospitality programs around the world.

This year, over 20 students from the Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona traveled to NYC for HX 2019. Moreover, six of them also participated in the STR Competition for the first time.

In the end, the Cal Poly Pomona team won the 2nd Prize among the 25 competing colleges and universities. The other winning teams include Michigan State …

Want a job at McDonald’s? Now, it is as easy as talking to Alexa

McDonald’s Corporation introduced the world’s first voice-initiated job application process called McDonald’s Apply Thru. Now, job seekers can initiate the job application process through McDonald’s Apply Thru by taking to either Alexa or Google Assistant.

How McDonald’s Apply Thru works
The job application process begins with the applicants saying:
“Alexa, help me get a job at McDonald’s.”
or
“Google, help me get a job at McDonald’s.”
Then, the job applicants will need to answer a few basic questions, including their name, job of interest, and the location where they want to work.
Afterward, the job applicants will receive a text message with a hyperlink that will take the applicants to continue the rest of the application process.
Where McDonald’s Apply Thru serve
McDonald’s Apply Thru is now available in nine countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. It will be made available to other countries in the coming months.
Why McDona…

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Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

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