A senior Southwest captain says the airline fired him over “mean tweets” just 644 days before mandatory retirement. You can buy a retired DC-9 for $5,000, Porter adds a redemption surcharge, and a Senate candidate makes a mess of airline pricing.
Passengers on a Delta regional flight say the plane sat on the ground waiting for a late-arriving traveler tied to airline leadership. They also say a man who had already been upgraded was removed from first class so the traveler could take his seat.
A JetBlue redeye passenger in the Mint cabin was reported for solo sexual conduct, and the crew’s message included one detail that made the whole thing even stranger. Along with the warning and request for police or security on arrival, JetBlue’s internal note made sure to mention that the passenger was Mosaic 4 — the airline’s top published elite status tier.
A Frontier passenger was filmed at the gate wearing a cat on his head like a hat. He walks around the gate area with it and even adjusts it over his headphones.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was photographed flying first class on Friday. He’s being criticized for the premium experience of an upgraded class of service while the working classes suffer coach. That take does not makes sense.
United Airlines is pouring resources into premium cabins and new upsell products, but coach travelers are getting upgrades too. The airline says economy flyers will see Starlink wifi, better food, softer blankets, improved earbuds, and more screens — small touches that matter when most passengers still sit in the back.
Delta usually sells its first class seats rather than giving them away as upgrades. So when a gate agent in Salt Lake City still had two empty seats to fill, she did not just clear the list and move on. She turned the gate area into a break dance contest and used that to assign the seats.
United Airlines shifts MileagePlus so that you only get real value out of the program if you take their credit card, starting April 2. You don’t actually need to spend on the annual fee cards to get the value – just have one. And there are limited-time offers for 3 of the cards that are ending soon.
If you’re engaged in MileagePlus you want their card. And if you’re going to get the card, you want to do it now.
A Black Ohio man says a Marriott hotel canceled the room he booked for his family on Super Bowl Sunday, then told him “You people” were not allowed to stay there and called police when he challenged the decision. The new federal civil rights lawsuit turns a viral hotel dispute into something much worse for Marriott: not just a claimed no-locals policy, but an allegation that geography was used as a cover for explicit racial discrimination.
President Trump ordered the government to pay TSA screeners even though House Republicans refused to take up a Senate funding bill, and DHS now says officers will get paychecks on Monday. The move may ease the immediate airport staffing crisis after weeks of unpaid work, rising absences, and hundreds of TSA resignations, but it’s also probably illegal – though may not be challenged.
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 »
