Monthly Archives for August 2018.
It’s often been said that there are two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost. It turns out there’s a third kind.
Joshua Dwain Frith captured a Delta baggage handler on film Wednesday at New York JFK “recklessly tossing bags and a strollers… [h]e was assaulting those bags. But the stroller was attempted murder.”
American Airlines gave employees across the board raises without insisting that the pay changes be part of a contract. The airline says that’s made it harder to get mechanics to agree to a contract. American mechanics have already gotten much of the money they’re going to get with a new contract, so there’s less incentive for employees to agree to rules changes the airline wants.
The carrier is offering terms they say are more costly than what United and Delta have with their mechanics, so a common refrain from management has been that they would happily sign either the United or Delta deal today.
So what happens when a Paris – Islamabad flight was delayed on August 3rd, it was hot outside, and there’s no working air conditioning on the plane? The aircraft doors were closed for a couple of hours. And passengers onboard flight PK750 were in extreme discomfort. Indeed, “a mother was begging for to open the door and to save her child who was completely unconscious when the air conditioning system was completely off” according to at least one report.
There’s footage from onboard the plane “show[ing] a woman pleading with the airline staff to open the door as her infant was experiencing breathlessness before take off.”
A Canadian pilot with a history of bank robberies died in a crash 5 years ago. He was legally drunk when he attempted to land his Cessna 172R in Nashville fog — despite a plan to fly to Pelee Island Airport in Ontario, Canada.
For the record my emergency contact is Michelle Pfeiffer in The Russia House.
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.
When the seat belt sign is on, wear your seat belt. When the seat belt sign is off, but you’re in your seat wear your seat belt.
This is video from an American Airlines flight from Miami to Buenos Aires in the past few days. American operates both a Boeing 777-200 and a Boeing 777-300ER. It appears to me this video is of the aft galley on a 777-300ER.
Etihad has talked up a strategy of linking up with several Star Alliance airlines saying that since they are no longer ‘their own alliance’ this isn’t in conflict with Star rules.
Etihad isn’t the only Gulf carrier pursuing closer ties with the Star Alliance though. Gulf Air says this is their objective as well.
After Chase introduced their Sapphire Reserve Card they immediately took a $200 – $300 million hit to their bottom line. They took another $330 million charge in the just-completed second quarter for rewards expense.
The strategy then for making money on affluent customers moves to cross-selling, which is why they’ve offered points bonuses for new mortgages. Here’s the next stage.
There’s a 30% bonus on transfers from Amex to Virgin Atlantic right now and Virgin offers the cheapest US-Asia first class awards on their partner ANA.
So it seemed worth taking a look at ANA first class availability. And right now the Houston and Chicago routes especially have great availability beginning in 2019 through end of schedule.
China Eastern flies Shanghai – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (they also serve Honolulu, but with equipment that lacks a first class cabin). Beyond Shanghai of course you can connect to myriad destinations.
Delta of course owns a piece of China Eastern, so I choose to believe this is intentional, making that airline’s best product available for redemption by SkyMiles members.
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 »
