After the events of January 6th at the U.S. Capitol, Joe Biden nixed plans to take a chartered Amtrak train down to D.C. and flew instead. Only he wasn’t flown by the Air Force. He and his team and accompanying media took private charters from Wilmington, Delaware to Joint Base Andrews.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
James Hogan has been spotted in Podgorica, consulting with Montenegro’s Minister of Finance on the formation of a new national airline. Montenegro Airlines liquidated last month, the victim of losses, mismanagement, and a scandal involving free travel for government officials. The country promised it would be replaced by new carrier 2 Montenegro.
For several years American Airlines has had a laser focus on ‘D0’ exact on-time departures. It hasn’t made them an on-time airline, but they’ve sacrificed cleaning, processing upgrades and standbys at the gate, and wouldn’t hold even the last flight of the day for connecting passengers.
Gate agents, used to getting called in for missing D0, and used to managers yelling at them as they try to get flights out, haven’t fully adapted to the need to prioritize aircraft cleaning in the Covid era on just pushing the aircraft back on time. Before the pandemic sacrificing cleaning to get planes out was the airline’s explicit policy.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
As Sunday’s Spirit Airlines flight NK646 from Detroit to Atlanta was boarding at gate D15 a gate agent stopped a passenger to check the size of their bag. The passenger objected and words became physical, turning into an “all out brawl” of passengers attacking airline employees.
While President Trump may have signed an order that would lift the travel ban on Europeans and Brazilians from entering the U.S., that order doesn’t go into effect until January 26 – six days after Joe Biden assumes office. The intention appears to be to reverse the lifting of the travel ban before it happens.
Elise Eberwein, American Airlines Executive Vice President in charge of HR and Corporate Communications, had her impending retirement, along with that of CEO Doug Parker, announced by an employment search firm. One of the six top leaders of the airline, she took to twitter to offer her take on what happened.
According to an announcement by the firm that American Airlines tapped to find its new Chief Human Resources Officer, the role they’re hiring for will eventually report to Doug Parker’s replacement – who will be an internal hire – once Executive Vice President Elise Eberwein retires and the airline replaces Doug Parker as CEO with an internal candidate,
What happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was… deplorable, to borrow a phrase. Using the events of January 6th to impose new screenings for hotel guests, and eliminate guest privacy by requiring chains to track service requests for the government is as well.
IF you prefer a room with a specific view, the government might want to know, to question you later if a crime occurs in the area your room overlooks. Your upgrade requests suddenly become national security concerns.
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 »
