American Airlines advertises same-day confirmed changes as a way to move to a better flight, but its rules make the benefit far harder to use than United or Delta. Seats can still be for sale, first class passengers can be blocked, hub customers can lose flexibility, and the app may not even show options that should be available.
Chase Sapphire Reserve now has a record 150,000-point bonus, but the bigger story is that this is still a premium travel card built for actual spending. With strong earning on direct travel and dining, useful protections, valuable transfer partners, and better-than-usual lounge access, the $795 card is not just another coupon book with a big intro offer.
Philippine Airlines is joining oneworld next year, finally putting one of the better-hidden Asia award opportunities within reach of American Airlines flyers. Its seats have often been unusually available but hard for U.S. travelers to book; once PAL enters oneworld, those awards should become cheaper and easier to access—until everyone else starts chasing them too.
Airlines love handing out tiny “courtesy” vouchers when your bag goes missing, but that is not the end of what they may owe. If your luggage is delayed, lost, or damaged, you can claim reasonable documented expenses, get checked bag fees refunded when delivery is significantly late, and on U.S. domestic flights pursue claims for lost bags up to the $4,700 liability cap — as long as you know which kind of compensation you are actually asking for.
American Airlines flight attendants are suing for overtime pay under Illinois law, arguing that time at the airport should count as work even though their union contract pays under a very different system. It is part of a growing wave of lawsuits trying to use state wage laws to punch through airline labor contracts.
A shared passenger blacklist sounds like a tough answer to bad behavior in the cabin, but it is the wrong tool for a rare and messy problem. Reported incidents are up, but much of the real fix happens before the aircraft door closes: better gate staffing to keep impaired or unstable passengers from boarding, and better crew de-escalation training so ordinary conflicts do not become onboard flashpoints.
A British Airways flight attendant has been suspended after reportedly getting drunk at a hotel in Belfast during a layover and offering a sexual proposition to an employee in exchange for wine after the bar closed. And given cabin crew layover culture at the airline, this is the most British Airways story ever.
A 24-year old Orthodox Jewish traveler from New York, in London for a friend’s wedding, filmed the TV in his room at the Travelodge London Manor House showing a welcome screen that included “Free Palestine.” A second visibly Jewish guest, staying in another room, reported the same message and that front desk staff was hostile at check-in.
A Houston man allegedly got through TSA with a fake boarding pass, slipped past a distracted United gate agent, and boarded a full flight to Los Angeles without a ticket. He might have made it farther if every seat hadn’t already been taken.
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card has a new limited-time offer that is unusually strong for a $95 hotel card: up to 125,000 points, a free night worth up to 50,000 points, and up to $100 back on airline purchases. It is a card worth getting for the bonus—and, because of the annual free night and elite night credits, one many travelers should keep.
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 »
