Monthly Archives for August 2022.
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.
The Department of Transportation has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would codify circumstances in which a passenger is entitled to a refund for their ticket, and rules for a future pandemic making passengers entitled to a voucher if it’s inadvisable for them to travel for public health reasons. DOT even wants to pre-write customer refunds into future pandemic bailouts of the airlines.
Mostly the rule would formalize current practice, after several airlines broke with convention during the pandemic and held their customers’ money hostage. There is much to like here, as a result of bad actors among the airlines and how tilted the law is in favor of air carriers. But there’s also some overreach as well.
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.
Airlines are one of the most heavily unionized industries in the country. That works out well for customers and investors at Southwest, but less well at other airlines. Delta, the other historically strong performer, is mostly non-union. Their largest unionized work group is their pilots. Delta’s dispatchers are also unionized.
The biggest flight attendants union is working hard to change that – even as they publish data that 97% of flight attendants they represent at United are deeply unhappy.
There are several rebates and bonus offers available right now for Uber and Uber Eats, that you can stack for lower costs, points, and to earn American Airlines elite status all at the same time if you sign up for the offers and use the right credit cards. In fact there’s a triple-dipping opportunity.
The Loyalty Lobby blog recently wrote a post, that apparently went viral, claiming that immigration lines in Bali were five hours long, that the airport had “Become A Total Hellhole” and warning people to stay away. He said people were crying and needed medical attention during their waits.
In fact it took the blogger who writes under the name Sebastian Powell 53 minutes to get through immigration. His story was apparently based on what one traveler told him about their experience.
JetBlue is still losing money. They’ve set aside nearly $4 billion of their cash to buy Spirit Airlines (really, your cash given the taxpayer subsidies received during the pandemic). So they need more money. They’re trying to generate some with a legitimate fare sale.
The American Airlines Boeing 737-800, came in from Miami on Monday night. It was scheduled to fly as American Airlines 2036 from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte on Tuesday morning. That didn’t quite happen.
Instead, a tug got caught underneath the aircraft. It’s amazing and cringeworthy to watch at the same time. Thankfully everyone involved is ok.
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.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s military plane has touched down in Taiwan. It’s been the most tracked aircraft movement in history. The Boeing C-40C using call sign SPAR19 took off from Kuala Lumpur and over 300,000 people were tracking the plane in real time at once. So many people were watching it that tracking sites couldn’t handle the server loads.
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 »
