“Your mother didn’t raise you right.” A woman on an American Airlines flight tried to deplane at Charlotte, moving toward the front of the aircraft and shoving herself past other customers while passengers were still waiting to deplane. The aircraft door apparently is even not open yet. She wants to move forward. Two passengers challenge her cutting the line to get off the aircraft and things get worse when she argues.
Air France charged a passenger $583 at Paris Charles de Gaulle because its records claimed he skipped his outbound flight — even though he says he was onboard and has selfies, the boarding pass, airport receipts, and a KLM delay email to show it. Air France and KLM keep trusting the bad record over the evidence, which means the fastest fix may be to go full GDPR and force them to correct the underlying data.
Delta’s reliability problems are showing up where they can least afford them: New York–Los Angeles, the premium transcon route packed with business travelers and high-profile customers. An internal note to pilots asks them to help make up for increased delays and plunging net promoter scores among customers by making extra efforts at communication during disruptions.
Admirals Clubs and Flagship Lounges are adding Friday sweets this summer — dirty sodas, made-to-order sundaes, and ice cream sandwiches — a small but telling sign of how much airline lounges have changed as credit cards, premium travel, and leisure passengers reshape the business.
American Express is suing the mayor of London over $713,851 in unpaid Business Gold card debt — London, Kentucky, that is. Also: Hawaiian ends free coach meals to Hawaii, Japan Airlines bans flight attendants from drinking on layovers, and JAL offers lunar transport that frequent flyer programs arguably beat decades ago.
Minneapolis airport just got a new Priority Pass lounge that’s got 17 gaming stations and an Italian robot bartender — and because it is treated as a lounge rather than an “experience,” Amex Platinum, Bilt and Capital One Priority Pass members should be able to use it too.
Hyatt held its investor day on Thursday and they shared that they are “targeting Germany and Spain” for cobrand credit cards and that they’re looking at the UK, Japan, and Mexico markets for cards as well.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford says Trump’s first air traffic control modernization push was “hijacked” into a privatization debate by airlines — but Trump himself explicitly proposed moving ATC into a self-financing nonprofit. Bedford’s Airlines Confidential interview reveals a broader problem: the FAA wants more central control over airline schedules while still running, regulating, and excusing the system whose failures it is supposed to fix.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn exploded during a launch pad test before an Amazon Leo satellite mission. Amazon’s airline Wi-Fi plan depends on getting thousands of satellites into orbit fast, and losing New Glenn launch capacity removes precious slack while Starlink-equipped rivals race ahead.
Italy’s top court says a five-star hotel can refuse free tap water and offer $8 bottled water instead. Also: American blocks close-in partner saver awards, Amadeus gets fined over traveler profiling, Qantas adds Philippine Airlines, and Bilt adds Mindbody fitness bookings.
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 »
