Monthly Archives for January 2019.
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.
The world’s first “Christian-based airline” says they’ll launch by summer. Judah 1 currently has a single McDonnell Douglas MD MD83 aircraft and intends to operate from North Texas Regional Airport sixty miles Northeast of Dallas Fort-Worth.
New Federal Reserve data combined with data from Equifax tells us something about average Americans’ use of credit cards.
My daughter received conditional approval for Global Entry. Unlike precheck where small children can accompany parents, if the child – even a baby – doesn’t have Global Entry then parents cannot use it when they land back in the U.S.. My wife and I wanted her to get Global Entry right away!
Unfortunately her interview was scheduled for early January, and the morning it was scheduled we received a cancellation email because of the government shutdown.
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.
American Express Centurion lounges seem to me to be so crowded no one goes there anymore. The lounges are nice, an improvement on their US airline lounge alternatives. They’re stylish spaces with decent food and beverage programs.
And whenever you have a nice lounge demand for the lounge is greater than you expect, even knowing that the lounges are going to face heavy demand because people are going to want to use them.
Based on internal conversations American Airlines believes that they have too many widebodies today but as soon as their joint venture with Qantas is approved they’ll be able to grow into them — taking a couple of planes that fly to Europe in the summer and using them on South Pacific routes in the winter starting in late 2019.
Security wait times have increased as TSA screeners call in sick — coming to work not knowing when they’ll be paid is demoralizing. Air traffic controllers are working without knowing when they’ll be paid, too. But is there any reason that has to be so?
Should US airlines hire the screeners and air traffic controllers and pay them directly?
In addition to faster internet American’s 737s and A321s are also getting bigger overhead bins. As long as each passenger only brings their allowable carry on bags and stows their personal item under the seat there should be no need to check a bag.
A change to the computer display at each gate rolled out December 11 to let agents know when the plane has this new interior and will have enough bin space for all passengers.
Marriott is rebranding their loyalty program, with ‘Bonvoy’ launching February 13. There are no substantive changes whatsoever at that time.
Where does the money for this come from that the loyalty program is investing to transform themselves into Bonvoy? It comes from members, and more specifically from member loyalty accounts.
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 »
