Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for January 2022.

Flight Diverts When United Passengers “Riot” After Being Caught Self-Upgrading

by Gary Leff

Jan 21 2022

On Thursday night United Airlines flight UA90 from Newark to Tel Aviv turned around and flew back to Newark after a dispute between passengers and flight attendants turned ugly.

Two individuals decided that they needed the comfort of empty business class seats for the long journey across the Atlantic and onward to the Mideast, even though they hadn’t paid for the seats. A flight attendant caught the self-upgraders, and disagreed vehemently. The passengers didn’t return to their assigned seats, though, and in the words of someone else in the cabin began to “riot.”

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Marriott Won’t Even Tell Members When In March They’ll Devalue Points

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Jan 20 2022

Marriott is eliminating award charts, but they won’t tell us exactly when. So it’s a secret devaluation.

They say it’s coming sometime in March. That’s consistent with the original announcement that award charts would cease in March 2022. Some people have assumed this would mean March 1, 2022. And that’s possible, however a Marriott spokesperson tells me “we haven’t announced the date yet.”

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American Airlines Introduces New Flagship Business Plus Instead Of First Class, What Does It Mean?

by Gary Leff

Jan 20 2022

Could this be the end of first class on international routes and premium cross country flights on American Airlines? Or the introduction of a really stepped up business class, or both?

Wednesday evening American was marketing cross country flights on its premium Airbus A321T aircraft as offering “Flagship Business” and “Flagship Business Plus,” the latter instead of first class,. Indeed, the column heading where ‘First’ used to be was replaced with ‘Premier’ at aa.com. And now the change has been rolled back.

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American Airlines And The Points Guy Are Suing Each Other

by Gary Leff

american plane
Jan 19 2022

American Airlines has been clamping down on websites that work with AAdvantage member data for their customers. They made Award Wallet stop tracking member accounts and they sent a cease and desist letter to Red Ventures, which owns The Points Guy, over its TPG app which – among other things – lets customers track their frequent flyer program balances.

American sought to stop the practice, and so Red Ventures first sued American Airlines seeking declaratory relief. And now American Airlines and its loyalty subsidiary have countersued in the Northern District of Texas.

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