Monthly Archives for February 2018.
outhwest Airlines filed its 2017 SEC 10-K and shared some details of its frequent flyer program that may not already be common knowledge.
For instance whereas in 2016 American Airlines filled 6.3% of its seats on awards, Southwest fills twice as many of its seats with customers redeeming their points — and that’s increasing, too.
After the Superbowl, the world champion Philadelphia Eagles were flown home on an American Airlines-charted Airbus A330-200.
Naturally they left late, though I’m surprised they were just 47 minutes behind. D0 just doesn’t apply to the Superbowl champions.
As I pointed out with the launch of the blockade against Qatar last June, there’s a huge shift going on in the Mideast.
While conflict with Israel gets the most press in the U.S., the primary conflict is between Saudi Arabia (along with Turkey) seeking Sunni influence in the region and working to counter Shia Iran. The conflict in Syria, for instance, is largely a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudis have fought Iran-backed rebels in Yemen over the past several years.
Comedian Nicole Byer went on Conan last night and told the story about finding poop in a sealed blanket on Delta last March.
She pulled her first class blanket out of sealed plastic and “brown crumble falls on me” then she saw a “brown thing” and the smell hit her. She told a flight attendant… whose first reaction was to get his phone and take pictures.
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.
An American Airlines passenger reportedly got off her flight and realized she left her iPhone behind. She wanted to get back on the aircraft, but a flight attendant told her to continue down the jetway and and “she’d look and bring it to her.”
However the flight attendant is said to have claimed she couldn’t find the phone. Days later though the passenger says that selfies of the flight attendant began showing up in the passenger’s iCloud.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 provides penalties for financial institutions who allow themselves to fund illegal online gambling activities. However fantasy sports, state lotteries, and horse racing are not clearly included activities in the law.
Most financial institutions have stayed well on the ‘safe side’ of the law and prohibited customer activity that isn’t actually illegal under the Act.
Amtrak’s train 2150 from Washington Union Station to New York Penn Station broke apart between the first (first class) and second (quiet) cars this morning and “sparks and smoke went everywhere.”
There have been four fatal Amtrak incident since December. Fortunately no one was walking between cars when this incident occurred today or we’d be looking at a fifth.
Ricardo Vidal and his family landed at Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport. He was stopped by security “as he tried to return airside after discovering baggage handlers were on strike and attempted to return to pick up his luggage.”
He wasn’t having any of it.
American’s award availability has been quite poor over the last couple of years, so when space opens up I’ve frequently made note of it. One area that’s been especially bad are the transcon domestic flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco operated by a specially configured three-cabin A321 aircraft.
Right now though award availability is much-improved.
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 »
