Airline Pillows May Have Been Footrests Before They Reach Your Face [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Triggered.

  • Simultaneously makes Amtrak seem more premium, and Away less so.

  • Disappointment.

  • 15% off purchase of GHA Discovery Dollars through June 2. You give up Discovery Dollars-earning when paying with Discovery Dollars (so that’s up to 7% loss) and Discovery Dollars expire if unused.

  • My guess is windscreen replacement, but plausible that it’s radome work, nose gear work, or forward fuselage repair?

  • Baby changing stations, not in all Amtrak train restrooms but just in accessible ones, seems so de minimis. What does it say about Amtrak that it takes congressional legislation to get there?

  • Pretending to be sleeping, but okay:

    A man traveling to the Philippines for vacation slept through the entire 12-hour flight, having written his meal order on his phone in advance to avoid being woken up. The cabin crew then served him his meal according to the “chicken” option written on the man’s phone.

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. Gary shills for GHA Discovery nearly as much as @L3 shills for BILT. Prove me wrong.

    Good on Amtrak. (Wow, a double-mention of Amtrak in this post!) They’re actually seeing decent financials lately, too. Besides, I love me some NexGen Acela. More of a Monos-bag-person myself, but Away isn’t too far off. And, a ‘woo’ for the rare bi-partisanship. Bah!

  2. So if the guy “slept” the entire time…did the meal go to waste?

    To bring back a recent topic, the other day I flew Air Canada YYZ-YUL on a 787-9 and they still did drink service. Very impressive.

    @1990 — Choo-choo! Need to file at least one APPR request, wish me luck!

  3. @L737 — You got this! Woah, a 789 on such a short flight. Niiice. (Not sure if this means anything to ya, but thanks to Bill C-3, a lot of Americans are learning they may qualify for dual citizenship!)

  4. One basic rule. If the pillow is not in a sealed transparent plastic package, … don’t use it.

  5. “My guess is windscreen replacement, but plausible that it’s radome work, nose gear work, or forward fuselage repair?”

    Looks like cash strapped American Airlines is trying a new way to get new aircraft.

  6. This is why it is better to use the pillow for back support. I didn’t see pillows or blankets on recent domestic flights. I did bring several inflatable seat cushions for trying out. The thinnest one was the most comfortable because of it’s design. A thicker and heavier one rolled forward somewhat and that made it less stable. I will test one or both again on flights across the Pacific soon. I may try using one for back support instead.

    My testing of wired earphones has produced good results in overcoming low volume and engine noise. The devices were $20 in-ear-monitors with active noise reduction. Full sized wired headphones with active noise reduction were comfortable and had great noise isolation but I found that I heated up a bit with them. No more straining to hear the dialog with airline supplied cheap headphones.

  8. @1990 — Had to do a double check to make sure I wasn’t on a TATL, heh. I did see that! Doesn’t affect me but for now I’m very pleased that I finally got conditionally approved for Nexus so hoping to do that interview soon 🙂

  11. The loss for a titanium GHA Discover member isn’t 7%, but closer to 6.5%. Still it’s a 8.5% net reduction at least. So, a decent deal if you know you’ll use it within 24 months (not extendable by activity).

  12. I’ve seen enough of these “but there was no window” stories, I now am happy they lost out by not doing due diligence.

Comments are closed.