Monthly Archives for June 2021.
On tight connections American Airlines sometimes meets their ConciergeKey members on the jetway of their arriving flight and driven across the tarmac to their onward gate in hub cities. They’ve done this since 2014 in a partnership with Cadillac. That partnership has ended.
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.
Delta flight 386 from Los Angeles to Nashville diverted to Albuquerque when a passenger started banging on the cockpit door, screaming “stop the plane!”
A crewmember, Christopher Williams, wrestled the man and zip-tied his hands. Not all heroes wear ‘passport purple’ but this one does.
These gentlemen were raring to go and decided not to wait for boarding to have their meltdown. It’s not clear what started the mêlée but just 28 seconds into the video our heroes are already making up and negotiating a peace.
It’s a new test at some airports where customers checking in at self-service machines get offered to check their carry-on for free. According to an internal memo on the project, “Offers will be random and may not apply to every customer.”
Hawaii requires a negative Covid test presented on arrival, or else you have to go into quarantine. But not any test will do, for instance if you got your test at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic that won’t be accepted because Hawaii only accepts tests on its list of trusted testing partners.
Except that isn’t really true, because there are several tests Hawaii accepts which aren’t on the list. So you might forgive two young women who flew from Raleigh to Hawaii with their negative test results in hand – only to discover that the results wouldn’t be accepted because they weren’t from a provider on Hawaii’s list.
A woman flying from London Stansted to Alicante, Spain was denied boarding by Ryanair “despite believing she had done all the forms, Covid tests, and other necessary things.”
The woman, who is in cancer remission and trying to clean up her affairs while she can, was traveling to her home in Alicante to clear out her belongings in advance of the property’s sale. Since she wasn’t allowed to fly, she had to find a company who would take away all her personal belongings and donate them.
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have delayed the return of alcohol to their flights, ostensibly because of poor behaving passengers – although they’ve behaving badly while also not being served alcohol inflight so it seems an odd connection to make. American Airlines continues to serve alcohol in first class.
Facing a call by the international head of their flight attendants union for federal action to ban alcohol during air travel, United Airlines has joined the mix in a rather odd way.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian spoke at the Alliance Bernstein 37th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Thursday, trumpeting the turnaround for his airline – they’re going to be profitable in June and expect to make money for the second half of 2021.
He dropped several interesting tidbits along the way about their American Express card partnership, blocked middle seats, and Delta’s strategy going forward.
Chase announced today that they’re introducing their own network of airport lounges, though little details are provided on forthcoming “Chase Sapphire Lounge® by The Club” products. To date Chase has relied on Priority Pass to offer lounge access to its premium Reserve cardmembers. They’re the third card issuer to build a network of lounges in U.S. airports.
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 »
