Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for March 2019.

United Flight Attendants are Selling Their Seniority – and the Airline Wants it to Stop

people posing for picture
Mar 26 2019

Unionized flight attendants — and flight attendants at airlines whose procedures mirror union work rules — get to work the most desirable trips based on seniority. Senior flight attendants at large international airlines can jet away to Sydney, to Buenos Aires, to Paris while more junior flight attendants overnight in Des Moines.

Those longer trips aren’t just more exotic. They pay more (more hours) in a short amount of time, have longer layovers, and may entail staying at better hotels. Secondary markets developed. Last year I wrote about American flight attendants renting out their seniority for $200 a pop. Now United flight attendants are doing it.

Continue Reading »

Naked Man Tries to Board Flight Because Clothes Affect His ‘Agility’

naked man at airport
Mar 26 2019

This past Saturday a 38-year-old man tried to travel to Simferopol International Airport in Crimea on Ural Airlines flight 525 from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport wearing nothing at all.

The man argued he had a perfectly valid reason for flying naked: he yelled that “clothing impairs the aerodynamics of the body” and that he flies “with more agility when undressed.”

Continue Reading »

Limited Window: Get Free Local Flights With Category 7 Hyatt Turks & Caicos Redemption

infinity pool
Mar 25 2019

This is an interesting opportunity. Hyatt introduced new category 8 redemptions for the most expensive SLH properties that you can earn and redeem points at.

The Sailrock Resort in Turks & Caicos is currently category 7 (30,000 points per night) but they’re bumping it to category 8 (40,000 points per night) effective April 8. The price is going up because reservations now include roundtrip domestic airfare. And you’ll get that air travel for the lower points price still for bookings made prior to the increase.

Continue Reading »

United Now Pricing Awards as Low as 5000 Miles Each Way

united-plane
Mar 25 2019

At the beginning of 2019 I flagged that United removed its award chart tables from its website and rolled out premium economy awards without any award chart at all. This made me wonder whether United would eventually eliminate award charts entirely, as Delta has done, and move to align redemption more closely to the price of a ticket.

Interestingly United appears to be making reduced mileage awards available when ticket prices are low on short-distance routes like New York LaGuardia – Chicago, Los Angeles – Las Vegas, and slightly longer flights like Newark – Fort Lauderdale.

Continue Reading »

Boeing 737 MAX Email Scam Can Infect Your Computer

airplane flying
Mar 25 2019

Police are warning about an email scam aimed at getting you to open an attachment that will infect your computer by preying on worries over the currently-grounded Boeing 737 MAX.

The email may be framed as coming from a “private analyst” and includes an attachment with “leaked data” that warns of another aircraft that will “go down soon” and encourages you to share the file with your contacts — not just infecting your computer, but virally infecting others as well via a trusted source (you).

Continue Reading »