Monthly Archives for December 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.
A passenger on a train in China reclined their seat without telling the person behind them they were going to do so. The seat reclined into the passenger’s laptop, damaging the screen. That passenger sued – and won $475.
This is actually not all that uncommon, for instance here’s a cracked screen from a reclining seat in Delta Air Lines economy.
The federal government has ‘no fly’ and ‘enhanced screening’ lists, where they check the names of passengers and decide under what conditions someone is allowed to travel, if at all. It’s a form of pre-crime profiling where people have been added to the list by mistake, for revenge, or for any number of reasons that you aren’t allowed to know. The government claims it’s exempt from judicial review.
This process is meaningless, though, if people can change the name they fly under. So in 2005 Congress passed requirements for IDs that are harder to fake. Since then, however, rules requiring people to actually have a ‘REAL ID’ have been kicked down the road.
Hertz announced a $168 million settlement covering 364 claims against them, at an average of just over $460,000 per customer.
There are perhaps a dozen more customers who are suing Hertz, that are not a part of the settlement. I have to think that in many of those cases the customers believe the egregiousness of their experience warrants a greater cash payout and that it makes sense to get closer to trial.
Artificial intelligence has seen real breakthroughs. I don’t think we fully grasp yet just how far the science has come. But millions of people are getting their first self-aware glimpse via the free AI Chatbot. To be sure, much of our interactions with our phone and Google involve AI. And Tesla and Amazon have some pretty impressive projects. But does it really hit home until you have the ability to auto-generate a rap battle between airlines in under a second?
Armed federal officers publicly threatening to defy orders from the President seems like it’s getting insufficient attention.
The Biden administration largely continuing Trump’s border policies (he’s building the wall!) seems under-covered as well.
The claim about vulnerable flights as a result is absurd.
With United Airlines set to resume San Francisco – Hong Kong flights in March, business class saver award availability is wide open. You can book use the space to connect onward in Asia on airlines like Singapore and Thai.
As of this writing at least two business class award seats are available for every day except one March 24, 2023 – October 28, 2023. On most dates there are at least 9 saver awards in business class on the route.
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 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.
Chris Christie’s niece, Shannon Epstein, reportedly asked a family on board her Spirit Airlines flight home to New Jersey whether they were “smuggling cocaine” – because they appeared to be Hispanic.
She didn’t make it out of the New Orleans airport on Thanksgiving Day. Her flight was taxiing out when the pilot decided to return to the gate to have her removed from the aircraft. Officers met the plane and she… attacked them.
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 »
