Monthly Archives for August 2024.
Delta Air Lines cancelled more flights last month than they did in 2018 and 2019, in an historic meltdown following the CrowdStrike outage. They delayed taking care of customers, denied blame, and their CEO jetted off to Paris for the Olympics.
They’ve made a big show of their plan to sue CrowdStrike for damages, since this wasn’t Delta’s fault, but they have several hurdles to overcome.
Two flights in a row an American Airlines passenger found that overhead bins were virtually empty yet people were being required to gate check their carry-on bags. They weren’t allowed to bring their bags onto the plane, even though there was plenty of space.
This is one of the most frequent complaints about airlines I see in social media, day after day, alongside damaged checked bags. Those two complaints are related! Who wants to waste time at baggage claim when they land, only to find their bags lost or damaged?
Apparently people are taking glamor shots for their passport photos, staging the lighting and trying to make themselves look “hot.” This is… not a good idea. That won’t look like you when you get off of a 12 hour overnight flight.
Some of the folks trying this are finding out.
The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express now has an initial bonus offer. Most of the time it hasn’t. Frankly, the card is too good, and extra points should get you to pay attention.
Since current US Airways management took over, standby policies have been broken. They’ve been more focused on making sure customers don’t get a good deal with standby, potentially saving money, than on making sure customers get where they’re going. And they’re far less generous than Delta and United here.
If you just leave the default as one guest, that works out fine here but not everywhere. If you book for one guest it can be a good idea to at least communicate with the hotel in advance about the actual number of people in your room to avoid surprises at check-in.
Reader Doug asks why there’s no Coca-Cola in the Turkish Airlines business class or Miles & Smiles lounges in Istanbul? And some of you may not be aware of the reason either: it’s a political statement.
Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Chicago Midway found themselves sitting behind a woman with her hair draped over their seat back. They didn’t want a confrontation, but they didn’t want the woman’s hair in their face, so they sought help from a flight attendant.
According to the passengers, the flight attendant replied, “What exactly would you like me to do?”
Airlines use up to four digits for flight numbers. That means they can have up to 9,999 flights (since there’s no flight zero), and no one comes close. American Airlines operates around 6,700 daily flights including its American Eagle regional services. So they should have plenty of room to grow!
Except they don’t. American Airlines, Delta, and United are running out of flight numbers, and nobody knows what to do about it.
Here’s an interesting twist on a husband and wife traveling together, with only one upgrade seat available. Some believe that they should both suffer coach in order to stay together. Others see it differently. It’s just a few hours. Besides, if you love your partner you wouldn’t wish economy on 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 »
