Monthly Archives for August 2023.
An empty seat is the best thing you can do to have a better flight. On most airlines it is luck. On Southwest it is strategy.
Southwest doesn’t pre-assign seats, but if you board early and get the one you want and the flight isn’t sold out, you can improve your odds that the seat next to you stays vacant – by making it unappealing for someone to choose to sit down next to you. Always ask if the flight is full when you board!
A resort in Malaysia has filed a police report, and is threatening to sue, after influencers gave the property a bad review online.
They were surprised at the price to receive “unhygienic rooms” without additional towels available, “musty” beds “full of bed bugs as four people from her trip had rashes on their bodies” and without “a clean water source as they had to wash their faces and body with salty seawater.”
At least 16 students were deported from the Atlanta airport in one day after arriving from Delhi on a Delta flight. They all had valid F1 visas to study at St. Louis University.
A Delta Air Lines flight attendant traveling on American took a photo of a passenger laying down across a row of coach seats, with one of their feet in the air – and leg propped up by a tray table. The man didn’t just put his feet on the tray table – he was “wiggling them all flight.”
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.
Traditional managed business travel has returned to about 75% of what it was prior to the pandemic. And a return to 100% wouldn’t even be a return to trend. Before the pandemic business travel was growing. Yet it’s remained stubbornly stuck, three and a half years after companies sent everyone home.
Hilton is offering double points in all markets, and triple points in select cities, September 6 through December 31.
You should register even if you don’t have any Hilton stays planned this year because one might crop up, and you will never remember to go back and register later.
A week ago United Airlines made an announcement about its flights to China that is not true. They said they would add 10 weekly flights between the U.S. and China. They will not do so.
Delta announced that it would add six weekly flights between the U.S. and China. It probably won’t do this either.
Last month American Airlines took a teenager into a security room and interrogated him, eventually banning him from flying the airline for using Skiplagged.
His parents bought him a ticket from Gainesville, Florida to New York via Charlotte, when he only planned to travel to Charlotte. He didn’t plan to use his connecting flight, but the New York trip was cheaper. Now American Airlines is suing Skiplagged.
United Airlines pilot Kenneth Jones was arrested in a Denver Airport employee parking lot after a “bizarre ax attack” against the lot’s exit gate. He says he got tired of waiting for the arm to go up. The uniformed pilot is shown on video taking an axe out of his trunk and swinging the axe at the gate more than 24 times and finally got it up.
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 »
