Southwest is now charging for seats, but passengers report that even after paying for premium emergency-row seating they’re still not allowed to slide into an empty seat when the cabin has open rows.
Plus, the JFK AirTrain price goes up again, American flyers gripe about ads before onboard Wi-Fi, and there’s a 20,000-mile AT&T switching promo.
Dubai International briefly suspended flights again after another Iran-linked incident near the airport, prompting diversions to Al Maktoum before Emirates resumed operations shortly afterward. In a notable shift, Tehran is now publicly signaling de-escalation, apologizing to neighboring states and saying these cross-border strikes will stop unless Iran itself is attacked—after repeated hits on civilian infrastructure started raising the risk of a wider regional coalition against it.
American’s long-haul schedule plans for next winter show exactly what the new Airbus A321XLR is for: keeping marginal transatlantic routes viable when winter demand collapses by right-sizing capacity and leaning premium-heavy. The result is fewer widebody winter losses and more “extended season” Europe flying out of hubs like Philadelphia and JFK, as American uses the smaller jet to stretch routes that couldn’t support a 787 year-round.
United flight attendants haven’t had a raise in 5.5 years, and inflation has quietly taken a big bite out of what their pay is worth—so the tone shift this week is notable. The union says a final agreement is now close enough that it’s postponing a planned protest day, while United is telling crews the deal will deliver industry-leading pay, signing bonuses, and progress on “sit pay” and other long-running priorities.
A viral check-in video from a Sheraton in suburban Atlanta shows a manager refusing to honor a guest’s reservation because she arrived with a dog she says is a service animal. When police arrive, the hotel keeps repeating “no pets,” and the officer has to explain the basic point: service animals aren’t pets under disability law, and a blanket no-pets policy doesn’t end the conversation.
We’re living in an era where the brand is the product, not just the logo—and Delta understood that earlier than any U.S. airline. The point isn’t that Delta runs more ads; it’s that Delta has spent a decade building a story about who it serves and what it stands for, and that narrative makes customers pay a premium while giving employees a clearer North Star for decisions.
March 2026 brings a fresh round of best-ever credit card offers, with several new bonuses added and others already gone. Here’s the up-to-date list of the most lucrative deals still available.
JetBlue’s CEO says New York LaGuardia is now simply too expensive to operate from after the airport’s stunning rebuild—an admission that should worry anyone who cares about cheap fares and real competition. The problem isn’t that airports are getting nicer; it’s that America builds infrastructure slowly and at enormous cost, then forces airlines to absorb it through higher per-passenger fees that low fare carriers can’t make work.
ExpertFlyer just rolled out a new premium tier that can surface about 11 months of American Airlines systemwide upgrade availability in a single search, and it’s also adding more robust automated alerts plus AeroLOPA seat maps (while raising prices on other plans).
Also, the world’s deepest hotel room is shutting down, a passenger scolds someone else’s kid mid-flight, and Hotels.com in the U.K. is walking back Expedia OneKey to revive its old “stay 10, get 1 free” model.
American Airlines says it wants to win more premium travelers, but its flight attendants union says the airline is replacing well-liked crew hotels across the system in ways that mean less rest and worse onboard service. This is not just a fight over layovers — it is a test of whether American can really deliver a better product while still cutting the conditions crews depend on to do the job.
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 »
