Monthly Archives for August 2022.
This stat may surprise you: Austin’s airport sees more diverted flights than any other airport in the country.
In 2019 there were 574 diversions to Austin. From May through August the airport saw an average of about 50 diversions per month over the past 15 years. Summer thunderstorms are a driver. There are (4) reasons more flights divert to Austin than any other airport.
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.
Bilt Rewards is adding 3 new airline transfer partners, which will give them 12 airline partners and 14 transfer partners overall. In addition to being able to transfer Bilt points to American, united, Air Canada, Turkish, Hyatt and more you can now transfer points to British Airways – and coming next month will be able to also transfer to Iberia and Aer Lingus.
Two days ago there was Delta business class award space to Zurich and now there’s space from New York JFK to Amsterdam and from Salt Lake City to both Paris and Amsterdam in business class for two passengers for January through March.
Stretched thin as they’ve rebuilt their route network, Qantas hasn’t restarted Los Angeles – New York. They’re planning to fly non-stop to New York using new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft potentially as soon as 2025.
Until then they have a new solution for serving the New York market. They will fly Sydney – Auckland – New York JFK starting in June 2023.
A passenger checking in at the Atlanta airport reported being solicited for a bribe to avoid the overweight fee on a checked bag. He’s incredulous, despite the bribe offering a significant savings.
While the U.S. still has a vaccine requirement for non-residents to travel here, we’re coming out the era of pandemic restrictions generally. But we’re not becoming a friendly place to travel. In fact we’re largely becoming worse.
For those who need a visa the average wait times are mind bogglingly absurd. The wait time in Mexico City? Over 500 days.
American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja spoke at the Raymond James Diversified Industrials Conference on Tuesday, and he offered several interesting insights into who is traveling now and how American Airlines is thinking about generating revenue from customers going forward.
I’ve never understood buying a plane ticket and paying for a resort – and then having to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning just to reserve a pool or beach chair in order to ‘relax’. That puts me out of step with many travelers who flock to resorts where this is the standard.
Here’s video of guests literally lining up at 6:30 a.m. – waiting 90 minutes for the hotel’s pool gates to open at 8 a.m. – so they can storm this relaxation area like it’s Black Friday at Walmart in order to avoid missing out on a chair for the day.
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.
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 »
