Passengers on an Air Congo Boeing 737-800 reportedly sat onboard for hours after landing at Kindu Airport because ground staff couldn’t produce stairs to deplane the aircraft. Eventually, frustrated travelers began exiting on their own—jumping from the forward door down to the tarmac in a non-emergency situation, a stark breakdown in basic ground handling and onboard control.
Chase is making Sapphire Reserve’s credits a lot easier to actually use in 2026. The Edit’s $500 hotel credit stops forcing you to time bookings into two half-year windows, a new $250 two-night hotel credit adds more chains (including IHG), and the Exclusive Tables dining credit is expanding into more cities with 100+ new restaurants.
American Flight 1124 from Barranquilla to Miami diverted back after a lavatory dispute escalated into a crew confrontation, and the passenger later blew 0.00 on a breathalyzer at the gate. The FAA judge found he wasn’t intoxicated and rejected the threat allegation, but the passenger is still banned – and suing trying to get flying privileges back.
American just rolled out a November/December lounge food refresh—and it’s already teeing up another one for winter. Flagship lounges are getting new “active stations” like a Pho bar in Philadelphia plus rotating hot dishes (from bulgogi in Dallas to lemongrass salmon in Chicago), while Admirals Clubs are pivoting toward a bagel-based version of the current avocado toast concept—where the whole thing will live or die on whether they can execute a decent bagel.
Airports are replacing agents with biometric e-gates, and boarding increasingly means one thing: an unobstructed face scan matched against your passport photo and the flight manifest. A viral clip of veiled women being told to uncover at the gate got cheered for all the wrong reasons—but the real story is how “biometric exit” normalizes government face-matching as a condition of travel, and how simple accommodations can handle identification without turning it into a spectacle.
Delta flyers are discovering the “SkyPesos” reality the hard way: one photo shows the reality hitting the airline’s flyers at the airport – and on board. Also Asiana’s in-flight face mask service, Hyatt paying Texas $1M+ over resort-fee pricing, United’s revived Newark-vs-JFK ads, and more.
American Airlines is proactively emailing A321XLR business-class passengers to warn that the new suite doors cannot close yet because they aren’t FAA-certified. To make up for the missing privacy feature, the airline is offering 5,000 AAdvantage miles—another early-service wrinkle on an otherwise impressive new transcon and future long-haul workhorse.
inKind is a closed-loop dining payments app where you pay participating restaurants in-app and earn up to 20% back as inKind Cash Back (credit you can reuse inside the network). Right now you can start with a clean $25-off-$50 play (referral or offer), and if you’re a repeat user the real upside is stacking that with 20% back—or even prepaying for up to a 33% bonus—while staying ahead of the fast expiration on earned cash back.
My back seat belt didn’t work in a Lyft from DCA—and after I reported it, Lyft took the complaint and still charged full price. Also, use the Royal Air Maroc status match loophole to still unlock AA/Alaska lounge access; Alaska’s London award surcharge bug fixed; Park Hyatt DC’s 24-hour room service refuses coffee; and JSX expanding Santa Monica flights while activists sue.
American’s first Airbus A321XLR entered commercial service, debuting its new Flagship Suite. But early reports from onboard suggest flight attendants can’t set the table or serve meals with the swing-out screens deployed—forcing repeated stow-and-serve cycles that make you wonder whether the service flow was ever tested.
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 »
