A photo of a Singapore Airlines flight attendant assisting a passenger’s foot has gone viral with claims that first class includes on-demand foot rubs or “foot cleansing.” The image may be real, but the service almost certainly is not: this looks far more like first aid or assistance with an injured passenger than some secret Singapore Airlines luxury perk
American Airlines pilots union leadership is no longer just criticizing management — it is openly encouraging the board to consider takeover or merger paths after United’s CEO publicly floated a deal. The union says American lacks the vision, culture change and operational progress needed to fix itself quickly enough, and that “any path forward” should be on the table.
British Airways managed to damage a 787-10 on the ground at Heathrow. Engineering steps were placed under the aircraft, then the jet was fueled, got heavier, settled lower, and sank onto them. The Chicago flight was canceled, passengers waited packed on buses for 90 minutes, and BA may now owe roughly $352,000 in delay compensation before hotels and meals.
Palm Beach County and the Trump Organization have reached an agreement on the use of Donald Trump’s name to rename Palm Beach International airport for the President. They will vote on it on Tuesday.
A 48-year-old passenger is accused of groping a sleeping woman on a Miami-bound flight from Zurich — and then, after crew separated him from her, allegedly trying to pass her a note saying she looked beautiful while sleeping. The first class detail makes the case even stranger, because SWISS’s long-haul seats are not exactly built for subtle contact across the armrest.
Everyone says phone calls on planes would be unbearable. But passengers already talk to each other out loud, sometimes for entire flights, and one American Airlines passenger managed to dictate voice memos from New York to Miami. Either way the issue is volume and courtesy, not what technology is used while emitting sound.
United’s big MileagePlus changes are now live, and the program is plainly moving more of its value behind a co-brand card: faster mileage-earning, cheaper United award prices, and better access to saver inventory for cardholders, while non-cardmembers earn less. United and Chase are raising the upfront incentives just as the airline makes a credit card matter more than ever to getting the best value out of MileagePlus.
Hotel payment scams are getting harder to spot because fraudsters may already know your real reservation details. Scammers impersonating hotel staff are demanding payment through Zelle, PayPal, Venmo or bank transfer — and the messages can look legitimate because they reference actual stays, events, names and booking information.
A viral restaurant owner rant lays out what makes DoorDash so frustrating: restaurants lose margin, drivers create headaches, customers pay more, and the food often arrives worse than it left the kitchen. Yet even with all of that, delivery apps keep winning because they offer reach, convenience, and incremental orders that many restaurants feel they cannot walk away from.
American Airlines passengers made it to the gate on time in Miami, with boarding still underway — but their seats were already gone. The likely culprit is American’s automated rebooking system, which can give away seats from passengers it predicts will miss a connection before they actually do, leaving these travelers turned away and one missing a wedding.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
