Monthly Archives for February 2025.
At approximately 8:35 a.m. local time on Sunday, February 2, 2025, United Airlines Flight 1382 aborted its takeoff roll at Houston Bush Intercontinental airport. The Airbus A319, which was headed to New york LaGuardia, faced failure of the plane’s right engine. The crew rejected takeoff at high speed, slowed, and came to a stop on runway 15R.
U.S. and foreign airlines are granted anti-trust immunity all the time to collude on schedules and pricing, jointly deciding who will fly where and how much they’ll charge. The power the Department of Transportation has to allow this comes from an unusual, historical place, and its use has exploded in recent years.
The Sabena case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Sabena’s defense was that this was common practice in the industry. Airlines all denied it, and pointed fingers at other carriers including Pan Am and TWA as well as KLM and other foreign carriers flying across the North Atlantic. Ultimately a consent decree was entered into, and an Iberia executive was jailed for continuing the practice.
Perhaps nobody enjoyed the perks of using donated campaign cash on travel as much as the former one-term Senator from Arizona. Halfway through her term she became an independent. The expectation was she’d avoid a Democratic primary this way, since the once-liberal firebrand had moved to the center while in office. She had plenty of money on hands in her campaign coffers, and she kept spending it on travel – even as she was no longer campaigning.
Hotels are nickel and diming guests for things I never used to hear of their charging extra for. The Aloft hotel in McAllen, Texas reportedly billed a guest $80.50 for washcloths because she used them to remove makeup.
A United Airlines passenger flying a regional jet from Chicago O’Hare to Fargo snagged $2,000 in travel credits to take a later flight on Thursday.
There’s a lot suggesting that this could be under discussion. The biggest argument against it is that it hasn’t happened yet, so might not come to fruition. But here’s the argument for yes.
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.
Lufthansa keeps making strange decisions with the interiors of its aircraft, and not learning from the experience of other airlines. They’ve crammed so many seats into their Airbus A320neo aircraft that there’s virtually none left for the galley – and this leaves them to seat a flight attendant on a folding chair.
Bilt Rewards is back with its Rent Day offers for February 1. The headline here is up to a 100% transfer bonus to Star Alliance program Avianca LifeMiles.
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 »
