An American Airlines passenger scanned their boarding pass, answered the exit-row questions, took their seat, and thought they were on their way home to Austin. Then, after the whole plane had boarded, the airline gave that seat to a standby traveler, told the original passenger they were somehow “not checked in,” and forced them off the aircraft – even though the plane left with empty seats.
Passengers on a United flight from Newark to Austin watched maintenance lean out of the cockpit window with what looked like a coat hanger to prod a sensor on the nose of a Boeing 737. The optics for an onlooking passenger aren’t great. United did not send out that aircraft.
Chase has brought back the best-ever 200,000-point offer on the IHG One Rewards Premier Business card, giving small-business owners a shot at one of the richest hotel bonuses currently on the market. The card’s $99 annual fee is easy to justify if you value the annual free night and fourth-night-free perk, making this a rare hotel card offer that is strong both for the signup bonus and for keeping long term.
China Southern fired a veteran flight attendant after she posted lingerie selfies from a delayed flight before passengers boarded, turning a brief WeChat post into a years-long court fight over image, discipline, and how far airlines can go in policing crew behavior. What began as a seemingly easy termination became much messier once judges started asking whether the airline’s rules were clear, proportionate, and even in force at the time.
A passenger on a Malaysia Airlines flight to Beijing was removed from the aircraft after allegedly patting a flight attendant’s buttocks and then trying to justify it by saying China-Malaysia relations are good. The incident reportedly followed a chaotic boarding process after an aircraft swap, but that only made his excuse stranger, not better.
Alaska’s San Francisco lounge is back in Priority Pass, but access now comes with a mandatory $15 co-pay on top of your visit. The fee is annoying, but the bigger signal may be what it says about Alaska’s shrinking presence at SFO: the airline now has enough spare lounge capacity to start selling access again.
A monkey strolls right up to a hotel buffet in Playa del Carmen, grabs breakfast, and leaves like it owns the place. Also Air Canada and United’s reciprocal free wifi, American’s “temporary” Heathrow catering upgrade, and the FAA accusing American of letting flight attendants return after positive drug and alcohol tests.
A Frontier pilot taxiing out of LAX says two trucks suddenly cut in front of his Airbus A321neo so fast that the crew had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting them. The FAA is now investigating the airside vehicle incursion, which the pilot described to controllers as the closest call he has ever seen.
Turkish Airlines has abruptly replaced both its chairman and CEO despite strong financial results and no public scandal, framing the exits as retirements while offering little real explanation. The succession appears to have been arranged at a high political level, but the choice of an insider commercial CEO and finance-focused chair also suggests continuity in airlinr strategy.
American Airlines is not just raising bag fees. Basic economy fares matter to elites because business travelers are also leisure travelers, and they’re also stripping away some of the most important status benefits on these fares.
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 »
