Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for February 2020.

LA Wants To Give Priority Security To People Who Ride Public Transit. That’s Silly.

by Gary Leff

bradley international
Feb 27 2020

Los Angeles is is considering letting people who take public transit to the airport have priority security. This isn’t PreCheck or CLEAR, just priority line access for the regular security queue, and follows a program at Boston Logan for people who take a shuttle bus or ferry to the airport.

Priority security isn’t actually free, in other words it isn’t costless. “When everybody’s priority, nobody is.” Grant everyone priority and they’re behind everyone else who is also priority that got there first.

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Delta Will Start Offer Mileage Earning And Redemption On LATAM Starting April 1

by Gary Leff

plane on tarmac
Feb 27 2020

LATAM is the largest airline in South America. With Delta’s move to acquire 20% of the airline, LATAM is leaving oneworld and its planned joint venture with American Airlines to align itself with the Atlanta-based carrier.

News of Delta’s plan only came out in the fall, and they’re already launching reciprocal mileage-earning and redemption starting April 1.

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You Can Now Redeem Hilton Points At The Conrad Punta Mita

by Gary Leff

Feb 27 2020

When hotels aren’t making the award space available to members that they should I’ve had good success getting the loyalty program to intervene. I’ve had especially good success with Hilton, such as with the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem and the Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea on Maui.

Readers reach out to me all the time with award redemption problems and I do my best to get them solved, week after week.

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Delta Air Lines Offers Reason To Be Optimistic About Coronavirus

by Gary Leff

Feb 27 2020

If you’re looking for green shoots in the coronavirus story, here’s one from Delta: even as there’s concerning news this morning about a person in California contracting the virus without having had recent international travel or having been known to come into contact with someone who was infected, there’s some indication that business in China is recovering.

At least Delta Air Lines cargo thinks so.

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JetBlue Is Using Coronovirus Fears To Sell More Tickets

by Gary Leff

jetblue plane
Feb 26 2020

If you have a previously purchased airline ticket, JetBlue’s normal cancellation rules apply. However if you buy a new ticket starting tomorrow through March 11 for travel completed by June 1, no cancellation fees will apply.

The airline says this is about getting consumers to buy tickets who are afraid of coronovirus, and the policy even applies to their basic economy and vacation package fares.

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Why I’m Starting To Worry About Coronavirus, And What I’m Doing About It

by Gary Leff

Feb 26 2020

I’m not locking myself in a cabin in the woods. I’m doing the disaster-preparedness thinking that I should have done already, unrelated to coronovirus.

The closest analogue in my lifetime may have been Y2K preparedness, and that turned out to be a nothingburger. It was sure eerie to be flying on January 1, 2000 on board a nearly empty United Airlines Boeing 777 from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles. The plane didn’t just operate, it operated on time, and everything else worked fine too.

However the thing about disasters is they aren’t exactly predictable in terms of how or when they manifest, and thinking through preparedness can make good sense even if this turns out to be a non-event in the middle of the U.S. where I live.

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18 College Students Chipped In To Buy One Airline Ticket In The Ultimate Chick-Fil-A Run

by Gary Leff

security line
Feb 26 2020

Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York all chipped in to buy an airline ticket they didn’t intend to use, just so one member of the group could get past security at the Albany airport. The group decided they all wanted Chick-fil-A but outside of the airport location the nearest one was an hour and a half’s drive away.

Instead of making a three hour roundtrip, 18 members of the school’s cross country and track and field teams chipped in $5.50 apiece for a $98 one-way from Albany to Fort Lauderdale, the cheapest fare they could find at the last minute. They sent team captain Vincent Putrino to the airport.

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Why American Didn’t Announce Details Of New Planned Doha Flight Yesterday

by Gary Leff

Feb 26 2020

There are two paths American could take for a new flight from the U.S. to Doha. One is replacing existing Qatar Airways service from one of their hubs. The other is flying Seattle – Doha, which makes a lot of sense once Alaska Airlines joins oneworld and potentially severs its partnership with Emirates. But American needs that to fall into place first, and get agreement over subsidies for their new flight.

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