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.
The Chief Revenue and Commercial Officer at Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways Arik De is being accused of using a fake sock puppet social media presence named Ivander Sebastien to “frequently and consistently mention[..] what a wonderful job his creator is doing” and – as another industry insider put it – to talk “trash on ex-employers and people he doesn’t like.”
Find Flights For Me flags great award availability between the U.S. and Istanbul on Turkish Airways that can be booked using United miles, and with miles in other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. You can use this to get to much of the world, since Turkish flies to more countries than any other airline. This availability is best from East Coast and Central U.S. gateways (more so than West Coast) and is focused on winter – from January and running into the beginning of April. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Find Flights For Me | Award Flight Deals (@findflightsforme) The United Airlines MileagePlus award calendar shows that every day in January has at least two business class awards between New York and Istanbul, and in some cases more seats than that.…
A baby panda being sent from China to Japan was spotted in a passenger seat, instead of flying cargo. Seated beside its caregiver, it’s actually wearing a seat belt and diaper and is munching bamboo leaves as an inflight snack.
The American Airlines award map shows where you can fly based on a starting city and number of available miles that you specify. It’s a tool that’s been around for about a dozen years, and is useful if you want to see where you can go (for example) for 6,500 miles in coach.
When you search for flights you’ll see a map of available cities including some interesting destinations,
In some ways I wanted something more revolutionary, rather than modest changes and a rebrand of Premier. But the effort behind this card says they’re still interested in investing in marketing a travel card with transferable points and that’s really great. It’s also important that they have a great acquisition bonus, and it’s even better if you go to Citi’s site directly.
United Airlines flight 12 from Zurich to Chicago diverted to Shannon, Ireland on Sunday when a passenger’s laptop got stuck in a business class seat.
The Boeing 767-300 was carrying 157 passengers and 10 crew. Crew couldn’t get the laptop out, so the pilot decided to land – not because they wanted the passenger to be able to work inflight, but because lithium ion batteries can catch fire, and if that happened and the laptop was inaccessible over the Atlantic it would be a significant safety hazard.
This lounge was renovated shortly before the pandemic, and while I guess it is… different than before I also wonder, given what it’s like now, why did they bother?
‘Spicy Flight Attendant’ Cierra Misst, who used to work regional jets for Republic Airways which is an Express carrier for American, United and Delta, is back on social media after having her accounts banned as the result of complaints by other cabin crew.
She’s now claiming that she worked a flight to Nashville, where the crew would overnight, where the passengers were all bachelor and bachelorette party groups. Everyone got handsy, several people joined the Mile High Club – including a new pilot.
There’s a pendulum that swings where loose policies are deemed costly, control gets centralized but proves unworkable, and flexibility is returned – only for the cycle to repeat.
Nonetheless, you should assume that there’s some flexibility available when dealing with airline agents because it’s low cost to do so with high upside.
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 »
