The woman whose Southwest meltdown at a Denver gate went viral last week is back in a new video – this time screaming at another passenger on board. Same airline, same passenger, second meltdown.
Spirit Airlines has landed back in bankruptcy and is now facing securities fraud claims from investors who say the carrier overstated its turnaround prospects after emerging from its first restructuring. As usual in these cases, the only clear winners appear to be the lawyers gearing up to litigate the airline’s latest collapse.
A bomb threat involving a single aircraft briefly halted arrivals into Philadelphia International Airport on Friday night. A passenger says it was her delayed Spirit flight from Las Vegas, that crew moved the woman who made the threat to the front of the cabin, and that police were waiting when they arrived.
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.
Ryanair is killing its new $91-a-year “Prime” loyalty program after just eight months, blaming the shutdown on being “too generous” to 55,000 subscribers. The numbers tell a different story: weak demand, bad unit economics, and a bundle that undercut the ancillaries Ryanair depends on for profit.
A JetBlue flight attendant turned the Thanksgiving bathroom line into something unexpected: a flying gratitude wall made of passenger napkins. Travelers wrote what they were thankful for – family, survival, second chances – and the galley filled up with handwritten notes, echoing earlier “Words From A Window Seat”-style acts of in-flight kindness.
Aviation insiders say an airworthiness directive may soon require software updates across the Airbus A320 fleet after investigators linked a JetBlue incident—where the aircraft entered a sudden uncommanded descent—to a faulty ELAC computer. Any grounding is expected to be short and staggered, with airlines updating the systems plane-by-plane to avoid major disruption.
Marriott’s Japanese-language terms and customer service agents are indicating a shift to a less generous late checkout policy, with Platinum elites guaranteed only 2 p.m. instead of the long-promised 4 p.m. While the English terms haven’t changed, the discrepancy appears to stem from a translation error — though it highlights how vulnerable the benefit is to future devaluation.
The head of the largest flight attendants union, Sara Nelson, says you should never press the flight attendant call button for a drink, and even tried to get the government to ban alcohol on planes which would reduce the amount of service her members would have to provide.
This is 100% wrong.
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.
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 »
