Monthly Archives for April 2023.
American Airlines has eliminated Saver and Anytime awards, and replaced those award charts with a new ‘starting from’ pricing chart for American Airlines flights. There are no changes to partner awards or upgrade awards. And since most American awards were already dynamically-priced web specials, in practice little changes at all.
Here are the full details.
The flight attendant’s vaping is an issue because it’s illegal and subject to fine, not because it’s inherently problematic the way smoking on board would be (exposing other passengers to the smoke).
Most of the time cabin crew are ‘unmonitored’ and while there are procedures, in practice there’s quite a wide latitude for deviation.
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.
If any pandemic precautions were to last it was my hope that actually keeping planes clean would be at the top of the list. At least clear out seat back pockets of trash from the passenger on the flight before you! But with the return to normal has come cleaning cost cuts, too, and prioritizing turning planes quickly during connections rather than cleaning between flights (and, oddly, not doing a proper cleaning job overnight either).
The Sheraton Damascus is being used as a prison for the country’s business elite where the government extracts payments in exchange for their freedom. This has been an ongoing use for the hotel property for the past two and a half years.
Hotel guests are told they have to “deposit US dollars into the central bank in order to help stabilise the Syrian lira, or they would not be released.”
Places are only touristy if you spend your time in touristy places. But I’m a big fan of popular attractions during shoulder season. There are fewer people – fewer tourists – but the same great things to do and see much of the time.
American Airlines will only sell basic economy fares directly, not through traditional or online travel agencies. There are some cheaper fares that they reserve to their own channels as well. But generally speaking there are two sets of fares depending where outside of American Airlines that you book.
Google has just introduced a price guarantee for airline tickets. If you buy a flight they say is at the right price, and the fare drops later, they’ll give you the difference. This should bring more attention to the generally-excellent Google Flights.
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 U.K. has set a June 2024 deadline to eliminate the ban on liquids over 100 milliliters at airport security checkpoints, with the widespread use of scanners that also mean travelers will no longer have to remove electronics from their carry on luggage.
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 »
