Monthly Archives for November 2022.
On November 14, 1992 Vietnam Airlines flight 474 crashed during a tropical cyclone as it approached Nha Trang. The Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft was carrying 25 passengers and six crew. Only one person, a passenger, survived.
The sixteen year old Soviet-built aircraft had departed Ho Chi Minh City. As it neared Nha Trang Airport, it descended below its expected altitude. It hit trees and crashed. The aircraft was destroyed.
The month before the pandemic American Airlines lost 75,000 checked bags. Incoming CEO Robert Isom told an internal group of American employees just after that that “every lost bag is nearly $60.”
The bet is that the bank will lose money on interchange, but make money on APR. They’re looking for customers who will revolve. Banks lose money on some customers (who pay off their bills each month) while making money on those who pay monthly interest charges.
Southwest Airlines famously doesn’t show up when searching online travel agency websites. Historically if you’ve wanted to buy a ticket on Southwest, you’ve had to go directly to Southwest to make the purchase. No longer! A simple trick will show Southwest flights in Google Flights searches.
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.
9/11 hijackers used boxcutters. TSA was created to stop future 9/11s. They search wheelchair-bound grandmothers, steal from passengers, and light billions of dollars on fire each year – all while admitting in court that they see zero active threats to defend against.
But when passengers actually bring boxcutters to the checkpoint? Yeah, they got through and a Frontier Airlines flight had to divert after one was being used by an unruly passenger.
There are 1,430 slot machines in the Las Vegas airport. Those slot machines have generated $1 billion in revenue.
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.
A review of Marriott’s Autograph Collection Watermark Baton Rouge flagged an interesting issue. On a peak demand date – LSU football against Mississippi State, which LSU came from behind to win in the fourth quarter – the hotel was charging higher room rates than the posted maximum on the back of room doors.
This week we saw the wealth of crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried drop by 95% from a previous high of nearly $25 billion to less than $1 billion, while it appeared that his trading firm, FTX, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme and customer funds had been raided to fill a huge hole at his trading firm Alameda Research.
It appears that he may have fled the Bahamas for Argentina during the night, after remaining customer funds at the bankrupt exchange had their wallets drained to zero.
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 »
