Monthly Archives for September 2018.
Last night United’s San Francisco – Newark redeye, flight UA1796, was delayed for a much shorter period of time than you’d expect when when a bird found itself trapped and flying around inside of the airline’s Big Metal Bird.
United’s Newark-bound stowaway was captured and released. When it arrived at Newark on its own it declared, “boy are my arms tired.”
A man hopped a fence at the Melbourne, Florida airport — and got on board an American Airlines plane. This happened around 2 a.m. These incidents never end well.
The perpetrator is a 26 year old man from Trinidad “who entered the country via Canada” and is a student pilot. He wasn’t very sneaky. Maintenance workers saw him. And then tackled him.
A Delta pilot has been indicted for lying to the FAA in order to be certified to fly, claiming that he didn’t suffer depression even though he had sought help from the Department of Veterans Affairs for a “major depressive disorder.”
The pilot had claimed his VA disability benefits for covering “knee strain and tinnitus.”
Taipei-based Star Alliance member EVA Air has one of the world’s best business class products. They should be on everyone’s radar because they also frequently have very good award availability from their US gateways and offer good connectivity into Asia.
EVA Air will take delivery of its very first Boeing 787-9 on October 2. They worked with BMW’s Designworks on the look and feel of the business class seats.
American Airlines just announced what should surprise literally no one, that they’re raising first and second checked bag fees by $5 as well, from $25 to $30 and $35 to $40 respectively. When United followed JetBlue, it was clear American would have to — they’re under real pressure from Wall Street over revenues and would have a difficult time explaining why they’d be “leaving money on the table.”
Once Delta made the move, American was never going to stand alone. And besides, Delta did it. Delta is smart, everything they do must be right.
Last week Marriott launched its first big promotion since launching their new program on August 18.
Nowhere does this offer say that it is targeted. In order to be eligible you just have to be a loyalty program member. Except not all members are allowed to register.
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.
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have opened a new departure ‘lounge’ on Barbados. It’s a departure beach that includes check-in and baggage dropoff.
Emirates is in negotiations to acquire Etihad, forming the world’s largest airline by number of passengers carried.
Etihad has been cutting costs and slashing routes after a $1.5 billion loss last year and a $2 billion loss the year before. They’ve been expected to walk away from some aircraft orders. I’ve read much of the changes at Emirates as cleaning up the balance sheet before getting acquired.
Singapore Airlines offers much better award availability to people using their own KrisFlyer miles than to people using miles from partner frequent flyer programs like United.
Right now Singapore Airlines is offering discounts on awards for their non-stop flights between the US and Singapore: business for the price of premium economy, and premium economy for the price of coach, which means up to 43% off.
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 »
