Monthly Archives for February 2024.
The Italian government stopped a British Airways flight from Milan to London Heathrow from leaving on Monday, because it offered passengers seat cushions with too much padding.
After the country’s aviation authority performed a surprise inspection on the BA flight at Milan’s Linate airport, they discovered that seats near the overwing exists of the Airbus A320neo had the wrong seat cushions. They were too thick.
On Saturday I wrote that Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is proposing legislation to give “lawmakers a dedicated security escort at airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view.”
He’s succeeded in attaching this benefit as a rider to the Senate’s FAA Reauthorization bill.
Actor and television writer Kylie Brakeman undertook a project to better understand airport concessions prices. She settled on Chex Mix, and crowdsourced pricing from around the internet. People submitted photos and other reports of the prices they’d found, and she built a spreadsheet. What she found is amazing.
It’s actually coach passengers with access to Delta Sky Clubs that are likely to see the greatest benefit, because those lounges are generally attractive facilities with good food and beverage options. What those passengers need most is for existing lounges to be a quiet respite from the terminal. And these Delta One lounges will go a long way towards making that happen.
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.
American Airlines has introduced a new ‘shelf stable’ “Meal of the Moment 3 Cheese Pasta” that flight attendants will mix hot water into prior to serving. This replaces the shelf stable MyPasta introduced in fall 2022.
This flight attendant has been arrested and charged with taking video of five young girls on separate flights as they go to the lavatory. This was discovered after a 14 year old girl reported being asked to wait to use the lav, and then invited in where she found an iPhone taped to the toilet to watch her.
The 9 year old learned about the incident when FBI officers showed up at their home, since they’d found more content on the crewmember’s phone than just the one incident that was first reported. She wasn’t the youngest.
I won’t tell you exactly what the baggage handler wrote on the luggage, but it’s the same as a tourism slogan for Australia’s Northern Territory. You can see for yourself in the photos.
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.
Passengers express frustration as pilots receive upgrade priority over them, prompting a reassessment of the value of top-tier elite status versus the advantages of mid-tier benefits.
While there’s a tradeoff upgrading pilots versus passengers along a certain margin, that’s not the reason most elites are sitting in back most of the time – just a visible lightning rod. Still, re-evaluating loyalty and status makes sense.
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 »
