United’s big MileagePlus changes are now live, and the program is plainly moving more of its value behind a co-brand card: faster mileage-earning, cheaper United award prices, and better access to saver inventory for cardholders, while non-cardmembers earn less. United and Chase are raising the upfront incentives just as the airline makes a credit card matter more than ever to getting the best value out of MileagePlus.
fter more than 17 hours in the air from Dubai, Emirates flight 213 reached Miami in thunderstorms, missed one landing for windshear and poor visibility, then got sent around again when the runway was not clear. That second go-around turned “minimum fuel” into a Mayday call.
Airports still have a strange kind of magic: permission to be untethered, drink coffee too early, watch planes, people-watch, and feel the trip begin before you board. The problem is that modern airports keep burying that romance under TSA lines, crowding, lounge waitlists, bad terminals, and $18 beers — so the real luxury is finding a way to escape the chaos.
A passenger on a Shenzhen Airlines Boeing 737 noticed something wrong with the wing, photographed it, and showed the cabin crew — and after landing, the jet was pulled from service for maintenance. It appears to have been a loose or detached flap rail fairing, the kind of issue passengers may see from the cabin before anyone in the cockpit can.
American Airlines is not known for Delta-style bidding wars when flights are oversold. But on a Philadelphia–Athens flight, the airline reportedly kept raising the offer until three passengers got $4,500 each to delay their Greece trip by one day — an unusually rich payout from a carrier that normally stops bidding much earlier.
Reclining is allowed. Repeatedly body-slamming your seatback for two hours because the guy behind you is tall is not. That is what passengers say happened on a United flight from Denver to Chicago, while the 6’7″ man behind him somehow stayed completely unbothered while a flight attendant allowed it to continue.
Delta’s “eco-conscious” inflight cutbacks look even worse when the utensils start melting. Plus: Southwest’s once-unthinkable layoffs continue, American’s cabin cleaning misses another seatback surprise, and Spirit gets its own ballad.
A Qantas Boeing 787 flying from Melbourne to Dallas diverted to Tahiti after a disruptive passenger allegedly bit a flight attendant and had to be restrained with help from other passengers.
Soon your AI may book your flights. The question is whether it will find the best fare for you — or the one that pays its creator, after researchers found models could be prompted to push $1,500 sponsored flights over $500 alternatives.
AFA-CWA wants the government to force airlines to add flight attendants on widebody jets in the name of evacuation safety. But the FAA’s own data says evacuations are already safe, and risks involve passenger bags, communication, blocked exits, smoke, fire, and training — not too few flight attendants.
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 »
