HOME    E-MAIL JOE    PRINT    SEND MOBILE LINK    2010 COLUMNS    JOE'S ARCHIVES   SEARCH NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT ... By Joe Brancatelli July 29, 2010 -- Nobody asked me, but… Everyone I know is waiting for that Hyatt Gold Passport credit card that Chase announced in February. The latest word from Hyatt is "late summer or early fall." Try using that line when Chase calls and asks when you are making your next payment. If you're a big player with Continental Airlines and the American Express Membership Rewards program, you might start thinking about burning or transferring those Amex points now. When the United-Continental merger is done, Continental will be gonzo from American Express. And the chance that the newly constituted United would join the Amex program is approximately zero since United is deep into Chase, its lead lender, credit-card processor and top purchaser of Mileage Plus miles. Nobody asked me, but … I've been carrying my own blend of coffee on the road for years, but I'm done now. So many hotels are switching to those disposable-pod units in their guestrooms that the chance to use your own coffee is fairly low. Seen recently on the back of my hotel room door: "Warning! No Lifeguard on Duty!" I think the sign was referring to the hotel pool, but I am not going to rule out the possibility that they occasionally flood the rooms. You know, just to clean the carpets or something … Nobody asked me, but … So I saw this sign in the crowd at an anti-immigration rally that formed yesterday after Arizona's SB 1070 was partially blocked by a federal judge: "America Love It or Leave It." Someone want to tell the anti-immigration crowd that the people they want to boot out of the country love it here? That's why they came. And regardless of where you stand on the debate, you should understand that we don't have a real immigration policy in this country because big business doesn't want one. And one of the biggest supporters of the status quo are the big hotel chains, who probably employ as many undocumented workers as any industry. Nobody asked me, but … Continental and United this week announced the management team for the merged carrier and, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the new crew is dominated by Continental. Continental chief executive Jeff Smisek will be the new United's CEO and president. Continental execs also get the CFO's job; the HR/labor relations job; and the top communications gig. United staffers got the CIO job, the COO job and some other less important posts. United's current boss, Glenn Tilton, gets a golden parachute called "non-executive chairman." United's president, CFO, communications boss and head of Mileage Plus all get the chop. And lest you think "it's just business, not personal," consider this: Robert Deluce, the founder and chief executive of Porter Airlines, is suing Air Canada. Why? Twenty-five years ago, Deluce sold several commuter lines to Air Canada and part of the deal was lifetime travel passes for him and his wife. But now that Porter is pummeling Air Canada in Toronto, Porter's hometown, Air Canada has repealed the passes. Nobody asked me, but … Virgin Atlantic is changing its livery. Big whoop, right? But don't tell that to Virgin chief executive Steve Ridgeway. "Virgin Atlantic has a strong history of investing during downturns," he says. That's what I want my airline doing during a downturn, changing its paint job. I hear BP may change its name to Amoco in the United States. BP purchased Amoco eons ago and it thinks there's still some goodwill there. Maybe so, but if Amoco is coming back, I want to see Flying A and Cities Services stations again, too. By the way, you do know ARCO is a BP subsidiary, right? And Cities Services became CITGO, which is now owned by the state oil company of Venezuela and controlled by that loon Hugo Chavez. Nobody asked me, but … Carol Pucci over at the Seattle Times has been tracking the growing problem of using U.S. Visa and MasterCards overseas. U.S. cards continue to rely on old-fashioned magnetic stripes and European cards (and point-of-sale terminals) are moving to chip-based systems. You can read her piece here. The new InterContinental Hotels Priority Club Rewards Visa card from Chase has an interesting perk: no foreign transaction fees. Given how Chase and other banks (and American Express) rip travelers off with phony fees related to foreign currency transactions, this is notable. Nobody asked me, but … Quick quiz time: What's the busiest passenger airport in the world? If you answered Atlanta/Hartsfield, you win a cookie. It handled 7.5 million passengers in April, according to an airport trade group. What was the second-busiest airport? If you answered Chicago/O'Hare, surrender the cookie. It's Beijing, with 6 million passengers. O'Hare is third with 5.4 million flyers. Number 4 is Tokyo/Haneda, which handled 4.7 million. U.S. flyers will be able to fly nonstop to Haneda again beginning this fall. By the way, the strikes and the volcanic ash crisis took their toll on Europe's busiest airports in April. Year-over-year, London/Heathrow and Paris/CDG were both down 20 percent, Amsterdam was down 18 percent and Frankfurt dropped 17 percent. Nobody asked me, but … I am asking you: Do you now choose to fly an airline based on its alliance? The airlines think we do. But how high up the list is a carrier's alliance connection when you make your choice? A penniless Yorkshire truck driver was sentenced to five years in jail this week. His crime? He sold the Ritz Hotel in London to a credulous real estate investor. Needless to say, the truck driver turned con man didn't own the hotel, which is controlled by two secretive British brothers. I know there's a joke here … or an episode of Leverage. Nobody asked me, but … My Portfolio.com (ahem!) masterpiece on driving on the road instead of flying is here. But one thing I couldn't fit in was the sweet deals AAA/CAA members get at Hyatt and Starwood hotels. If you're an AAA/CAA member, you'll get as much as 25 percent off and free breakfast for two from Hyatt until September 9. The deal from Starwood is as much as 30 percent off or free breakfast for two until December 31. Not bad since most of us belong to the AAA so we can get our battery charged on cold mornings … Today was the hottest day ever recorded in Moscow. It was 38 degrees Celsius. That's 100 degrees for you Fahrenheit folks. 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ABOUT JOE BRANCATELLI Joe Brancatelli is a publication consultant, which means that he helps media companies start, fix and reposition newspapers, magazines and Web sites. He's also the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer and has been a consultant to or columnist for more business-travel and leisure-travel publishing operations than he can remember. He started his career as a business journalist and created JoeSentMe in the dark days after 9/11 while he was stranded in a hotel room in San Francisco. He lives on the Hudson River in the tourist town of Cold Spring. THE FINE PRINT All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property and responsibility of Joe Brancatelli. This material may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission. This column is Copyright © 2010 by Joe Brancatelli. JoeSentMe.com is Copyright © 2010 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.