Monthly Archives for May 2021.
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.
If you’re an American AAdvantage member and you’re Under 21, your miles don’t expire. If you’re a United, Southwest, Delta, Hawaiian or JetBlue member your miles don’t expire.
But if you’re a lifetime elite member of American AAdvantage, having accumulated over 2 million miles, you have to stay on the treadmill of either earning or burning points every 18 months to avoid losing all your accumulated points.
James Hogan, founding CEO of Etihad, was bounced from that carrier in 2017 after buying stakes in troubled airlines around the world and mounting losses that reached as high as $2 billion a year. These investments included stakes in air berlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways and Virgin Australia.
The dual Australian and U.K. citizen is accused of using his two passports, and flying to the U.K. via a third country, in a scheme to avoid mandatory quarantine – and now it’s believed he may have done it before, too.
Travel & Leisure is promoting dressing up so you look like someone airlines want to upgrade. That doesn’t work, but reminds me of an equally silly claim in Bloomberg that there’s two magic words that work every time that do not work at all.
These are great examples of the genre of travel writing that claim you can fly first class just by pretending it’s your honeymoon. I prefer equally silly — and equally effective — suggestions that might be a little more fun.
A pregnant woman was denied water on an American Airlines flight because of coronavirus, since the airline isn’t offering drink service to economy passengers as a ‘covid precaution’ – though they plan to restore this June 1.
Three passengers on the February 7, 2021 British Airways Miami – London Heathrow flight have been fined for their behavior on board – and the court ruled they must even compensate the flight attendants they abused.
Enroute back from Turks & Caicos where they had been filming the Netflix reality show “Too Hot To Handle,” the group was tossing back margaritas in the airport. Then on board two members of the group were “kissing and behaving intimately.” And since face masks would get in the way, they wouldn’t wear those either. Things went downhill from there.
The first time back is a little weird at first, but it’s not something that really lingers. You get over the strangeness of it all by doing it. One trip back and you’re an expert at it again.
What does go a long way is a welcome and kind confidence from employees. It makes you feel like they’ve been there, they’re fine, and they know this is all going to be ok.
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Defense Department blocked him from seeing UFO fragments retrieved by Lockheed Martin. Former CIA Director John Brennan thinks there may be life on other planets. And the last Director of National Intelligence reveals there have been undisclosed difficult to explain incidents which have been kept hidden.
What the government knows about UFOs is supposed to be declassified next month. How is this not the top story on the news every night?
New York City is expected to approve rules that would prevent opening new hotels.
This will mean fewer hotel rooms in the city, higher room rates, and fewer visitors as a result. It will therefore mean less tax revenue. It will mean less business for Broadway, for restaurants, for taxi cabs. Even the city’s own experts think this is insane.
The new ban on most travel by non-U.S. citizens or permanent resident who have recently been in India which goes into effect Tuesday is symbolic – porous and giving people advance notice to get into the country under the wire – was meant to appear that the administration is ‘doing something’. Covid-19 variants spreading in India are already here in the U.S. Travel bans won’t keep them out.
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 »
