Monthly Archives for June 2015.
Philadelphia airport will have a $12 an hour minimum wage, and it won’t just apply to airlines but also the companies they contract with at the airport. Here’s why airports are at the vanguard of fights over minimum wages, and why unions have seen success pushing for them in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Minneapolis.
A collection of the most interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
United will let some members book awards for 25,000 miles that Delta charges as much as 65,000 for and American charges as much as 75,000 for.
Delta’s lease for gates at Dallas Love Field expires July 6 but they continue to sell tickets after that. Southwest is growing its schedule assuming use of the gates. The federal government says Delta has to be accommodated because it already serves the airport. No matter what the airport does, it gets sued. Now they’re suing to stop the suits.
And even American now says that if DOT claims everyone needs to be accommodated they want gates too even though they pushed for a law that prevents the airport from increasing the number of gates there.
You can now use points to pay down student debt. But if you do it, and accept the low value redemptions offered, are you really learning the right financial lessons?
Singapore flew non-stop Newark – Singapore as the longest flight in the world onboard an Airbus A340-500. They also flew Los Angeles – Singapore non-stop, and Thai Airways flew New York JFK – Bangkok using that plane type.
The Singapore Airlines ultra-long haul flights were originally operated in two cabin configuration, and changed to all business class service. The goal was selling fewer seats at a significant premium. The economics didn’t work.
The A340-500 was more or less a flying gas can. And carrying so much fuel for such a long distance means carrying more fuel to handle the weight of that fuel. As the price of avgas rose, operating costs of the plane became worse and worse. Eventually all three of those flights came to and end.
Data breaches and account security are a pretty big deal these days. Is this the best way for United to be promoting that?
I spoke with American on Wednesday morning about an upcoming very modest tweak to their award chart, that actually moves them further in the direction of matching award pricing with ticket cost and tells us some things about how members use the program.
Just a few months ago young Conrad Hilton went berserk on a London – Los Angeles flight threatening to fight and ‘own’ the ‘peasants’ on the plane. And he smoked pot in the lavatory. The sentence is in: he gets away with it.
A collection of the most interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
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 »
