Monthly Archives for February 2025.
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.
There’s a great video of the owner of the Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale, Ben Mallah, complaining about what Marriott required him to spend on his Sheraton property. He talks about how Marriott was telling him to bring back food and beverage after the pandemic and he threatened to pull the Sheraton flag over it. It’s a clear articulation of how owners believe Marriott will cave to them, and that they don’t need to deliver to customers.
Behind-the-scenes video by a former Emirates flight attendant that garnered over a million views has reportedly triggered the firing of an entire crew from one of her flights. While this flight attendant had apparently left the job prior to releasing the footage, the airline apparently pursued action against other cabin crew members who had worked with her.
Delta Air Lines became a social media and news sensation in recent years for their long-standing program offering aircraft trading cards that pilots can carry to give away to passengers. The program flew under the radar for decades but has become far more well known over the past few years as passengers go viral asking for them on TikTok and Instagram.
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.
A reader shares a photo of “A six pack of Veuve Clicquot that came down in baggage claim in Goma, Congo.. completely intact.” And I have so many questions!
These aren’t bottles of La Grande Dame – was it worth it to check these? And why pack them without better protection? Did the passengers pay customs duty? It was going to be tough to conceal them leaving baggage claim!
Here’s the state of an American Airlines A321T seat. These just haven’t seen much maintenance lately at all. Airline executives acknowledged that the A321Ts were getting long in the tooth as far back as 2019, but didn’t want to refresh them. They did promise to clean them better.
American Airlines flight 2863 from Austin to Charlotte was delayed four and a half hours on Friday afternoon because a passenger named their wifi network “I have a bomb.”
Police boarded the aircraft and asked the passenger with that network name to identify themselves, but they did not. Passengers were all taken off the aircraft and held, cordoned-off in the gate area.
Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry dismissed 30 officers from the Jakarta airport after numerous allegations they were demanding bribes from Chinese travelers. A diplomatic letter from the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta detailing 44 extortion cases was leaked, putting pressure on the Indonesian government to act.
When last week’s air disaster happened in D.C., the spotlight was thrown quickly on air traffic control – even without having any inkling that controller error contribution to the collision. That’s because there’s been a lot of attention paid recently to diversity efforts at the FAA, and because the President has railed against those sorts of efforts.
There’s a lot of misinformation about what happened. Here’s the basic truth, and how much it matters today.
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 »
