News and notes from around the interweb:
- Airport employees are giving grief to the airport CEO over $19,000 airline tickets. It seems likely that one of two things was going on here that isn’t being reported:
- PQP run, they were gaming to get a higher fare to earn status
- Buying the most expensive nonrefundable ticket possible and then re-faring for a flight credit to use personally.
The airport CEO’s claim was “the policy allows that, so we took advantage of that.” Now he says that prices moved against them at the wrong time. But why not take a less expensive itinerary? Wait to buy? Buy and then reprice?
The CEO (who was Biden’s failed nominee to lead the FAA) acted as though the tickets were something being ‘forced on them by policy’ when he’s the CEO and… has some say in policy? They sent 9 executives to Europe, one of whom turned the trip into an extended vacation against policy.
- PQP run, they were gaming to get a higher fare to earn status
- Airport staffer caught with 3kg gold hidden in their underwear (HT: Enilria)
- At least the 15% discount for cardmembers off of a 400,000 mile award is a lot!
- I guess the 2% self-checkout fee listed here at the San Diego airport wasn’t high enough to promote staff recruitment and retention, because they… had to go with self-checkout. Either that, of course, of they’re just lying.
- It turns out that ‘underwriting’ is a real thing and as I’ve been saying for several years “Buy Now, Pay Later” hasn’t been tested through an economic downcycle.
@MaykiGTI1 Klarna's Q1 2025 losses hit $99M, up 110% from last year, due to more users missing payments, despite 100M users and 15% revenue growth to $701M. Economic pressures may be causing defaults, with credit losses up 59%. Klarna's using late fees and support programs to…
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- Avelo Airlines didn’t like the billboard Seth Miller put up asking if ‘your vacation supports deportation’ since the carrier dedicated 3 Boeing 737s to government deportation flights. So they sent threatening lawyer letters and got the billboard company to take it down.
But now everyone is paying more attention to the criticism than the billboards had ever gotten. Few noticed the billboards. The New York Times covered the dispute over the billboards, as have many others.
Mike Masnick coined the term ‘Streisand effect’ for the way attempts to censor or remove information increases public awareness of it. It’s named for Barbra Streisand’s 2003 lawsuit over a photo of her home in Malibu home.
On the other hand, at least more people have now heard about ‘Avelo Airlines’?
Apparently, Delta doesn’t have any photos of Argentina.
They had to include another photo of Chile (Torres del Paine) in their ad promoting flights to Argentina.
When spending other people’s money, a lot of people doing it simply don’t care.
Makes you wonder how many execs book the most expensive nonrefundable business class fare codes (Delta D, C, I & Z) on their personal airline branded credit card and often re-fare and keep the flight credit for personal use in the future.
Years ago, one of my college roommates routinely did this working for a Fortune 500 company; once the initial ticket was reimbursed, they rarely verified if the travel actually occurred (compared the booking code for the original purchase against the booking code printed on the boarding pass).
Who knows about what was actually booked, and they should find the cheapest fare, but as a CEO who once traveled in coach on a red eye to Lisbon, I’m never doing that again and if I am not doing it, then all employees get business class as well. The return? That’s coach….just watch movies and these days, get some work done. What I don’t understand is the restriction to stay longer… That makes zero sense as I do it as a CEO, so why would my employees? Yes, it could incentivise people to travel but for the major conferences, it’s important to be present.
The whole discussion over what the DEN execs spent is a tempest in a teacup.
The airport is expanding, pax numbers are growing and their job is to see that that trend continues. DEN’s PFC’s equate to $18 per roundtrip, meaning one ticket at $19K was covered by 1,056 passengers. That is five A-321s worth of passengers. Bringing in ONE daily flight a year on even a 787-8 would cover the flight costs in just five days.
Let these people do their jobs in comfort. Yes, yes, it’s a government entity. But I struggle to find reason to criticize them when our federal government is wasting hundred of millions of dollars retrofitting a plane that will likely never be used by an elected official during their term in office.
@Parker – With regard to DIA our elected betters need to focus on (1) fixing the outstanding construction backlog and (2) widening Pena Boulevard to four lanes in each direction. That’s it.
Preposterous! An outrage! How dare! Business expensing luxury travel?! What has this world come to… *gasp*
Next, you’ll tell us some airplane seats can be beds! Like, it lies… flatly!
Boston Logan Hudson charges $3.99 for a soda and it is self check out. Lazy
Can not wait to see what their inventory loss will be at the end of the year
Grocery stores who have self check out sell more carrots then what they purchase. As t customer uses the carrot code instead of the shrimp code
@Ricardo — I’ve been. Loved it. As I’m sure you know already, for ‘Patagonia’ (the region shared by both countries), arguably the iconic image is of Torres del Paine (yes, Chile), maybe El Chalten or Perito Moreno glacier (both actually in Argentina), but it’s not like Delta flies to either Puerto Natales or El Calafate, directly (probably stops in SCL then LATAM or Buenos Aires then Aerolinas Argentinas). Of course, all of this is not to be confused with Tiera del Fuego, which further south (like Punta Arenas and Ushuaia, where you can take the expedition cruises to Antarctica.) It’s an incredible part of the planet. Well worth visiting for anyone interested. Decent food, too, if you like meat and seafood. Oh, man, the pink crab. Wow.
@Denver Refugee Not sure I understand your point but it seems like an apples and oranges comparison. What does a $19K business class ticket have to do with construction projects? DEN is one of the fastest growing hubs in the US. Seems like the folks at DIA are doing something right.
I saw that Delta pic and chuckled. That is most definitely the Chile side of Patagonia (Torres Del Paine) which DL doesn’t fly to. LATAM 1&2 flies from SCL to Puerto Natales or you can fly to Punta Arenas or Calafate (in Argentina)- none of which are served by DL. It is also almost winter there, which unfortunately, is not the best time to visit this amazing place.
Occam’s razor applies here. The simplest explanation is likely the right one, and that is that taxpayer subsidized, government appointed employees aren’t super concerned about being efficient with resources. Just one of hundreds of thousands of grifters that are dead weight on society.