American Airlines flight attendants will soon pay 48% higher union dues under a plan they’re being asked to vote for. The union is “calling this a dues restructure instead of a dues increase” even though dues will increase. They’re using this language because it isn’t just a single dues increase, but a system of automatic increases that raise dues 48% during the current contract.
Cathay Pacific finds itself managing a crisis because their inflight entertainment system provided access to an episode of The Family Guy.
Cathay apologizes, blames a third party that handles their inflight content, and promises that they’ve provided proper “instructions to ensure that the recommended content meets” State Party censor demands “our company standards.”
JetBlue is back with more major changes to their flying, trying to stem the tide of losses. In a tweetstorm (albeit on Bluesky), aviation watchdog JonNYC lays out changes to routes that JetBlue will be making, both to its Europe flights and to domestic operations from New York, Miami and Seattle and more – changes that the airline hasn’t announced yet.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing today on airline fees. It’s the end of this session of Congress, the chair is losing his position as control of the Senate changes party. So there was one last opportunity for grandstanding against airlines, who are a popular punching bag.
Sometimes airlines make it easy! But most of the punching would make for bad policy in ways that would drive up the cost of travel and leave consumers worse off.
The American Express® Business Gold Card had one of the better initial bonus offers already at 70,000 Membership Rewards points. Now American Express has accelerated things, along with the introduction of a Limited Edition White Gold card option.
A flight attendant on the Boeing 777-300ER videotaped this by aiming their phone’s camera at a monitor that was filming the entrance to the cockpit that displayed a live feed. They added their own explicit commentary, and shared it via WhatsApp.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
You can rent someone’s car on Turo, as an alternative to renting from a company like Hertz or Avis. It’s not always as seamless a pickup at airports, but you’re renting a specific vehicle rather than a broad category. You can choose much nicer cars, or cheaper cars! Sometimes you’ll get a much better deal renting from a private party. And you can organize dropoffs at your hotel, too.
Chase is running a 20% bonus on transfers to Air Canada Aeroplan through January 15, 2025. Chase Aeroplan cardmembers get up to 30% bonus Aeroplan points when converting at least 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points by January 15.
United Airlines sent out an email to all of its employees about planned wage increases – but this was meant to go out to only corporate non-union employees. Flight attendants, who remain in protracted negotiations with the airline, are apparently furious. Their last raise was in 2021.
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 »
