Monthly Archives for December 2024.
I’m not interested in the best at any price, or the cheapest. What I’m interested in is your thoughts on the best value overall – combination of quality and price – for someone who travels quite a lot. On many issues I have firm opinions. Here I will share my tentative thoughts.
There’s a growing elite consensus that the TSA has been fixed and is no longer a problem. I think that the narrative is misleading. TSA pays screeners more, so it doesn’t have a problem hiring screeners. That’s made a difference in security lines at some airports. But that’s the only dimension along which they’ve seemed to improve. It’s also the one most visible to travelers, so they’re getting too much credit.
Bask Bank is one of the best ways to earn miles without actually spending money.
Middle seat passengers get both armrests. They are closer to the window and to the aisle. Some airlines give prizes or bonus miles to middle seat passengers. But there’s another, hidden benefit to airline middle seats that I had never considered before.
After 9/11, the cockpit gets blocked off when the door is opened. A pilot goes to the lavatory, and no one can approach the front of the aircraft. That makes sense, but the flipside is that this should be reserved only for the pilot’s important needs. Here, a Southwest Airlines pilot flying from Dallas Love Field to Los Angeles reportedly spends a part of the flight chatting up a flight attendant, while passengers are forced to wait to use the lavatory. That seems like bad judgment to me – and actually illegal!
Uber drivers frequently protest their declining pay and it strikes me that there was an uproar over how Uber treated its drivers and that was part of pushing out their founder CEO, but things have actually gotten worse for drivers since then. For instance, many work 12 hour days earning less than $100 per day. Uber used to take 20% of the fare, now drivers report giving up 60%. Back then they might earn $400 per day. Pre-summer 2017, drivers had several complaints. Drivers didn’t have any choice in trips. They’d find out once they accepted the ride (and cancelling on riders once they learned the destination could get them kicked off of the platform). This was a solution to a real problem with taxis. In New York City you stand there and hail a…
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 »
