Airlines were making contingency plans to keep their employees away from London airports Friday and Saturday, and some were letting customers change their travel plans without a fee. It’s Wednesday and folks didn’t know whether they’d be able to fly in two days because of a strike by airport workers.
Fortunately the strike for this Friday and Saturday has been called off. Workers will vote on a new contract.
If American won’t let its employees take flights departing from Heathrow on those days, whether for business or personal (non-rev) travel, that’s a strong indication that you shouldn’t either. We’re starting to see airlines issuing travel waivers, so reconsider your plans accordingly.
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.
This change has been consistent in reports whether confirming a same day change to an itinerary, or swapping flights during irregular operations using the American Airlines app. Presumably because American sees you in R and is simply rebooking you into R, and R is now far more available since it’s been given a dual use as the second highest first class fare class.
Marriott, like some other hotel chains, refused to serve as detention centers to temporarily house people picked up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Yet Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson has been clear that the chain shouldn’t be in the business of vetting the messages of each group that books a meeting.
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.
Reader Joe checked into an airport Holiday Inn and found an unlisted amenity on sitting atop his room’s safe: bullets. I don’t normally embark on special forces missions, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night!
Delta thinks they have the flight experience part of travel down and won, and their CFO declares “the next area of competition in air travel is in the airport.” But they’ve turned over too much of the travel experience to government airports, government security, and government air traffic control to really make a difference.
Delta is likely to identify some some incremental improvements to reduce hassle and declare them revolutionary. And if it’s even a little better than the United and American airport experience they’ll be hailed for it.
There are scores of Airbus narrowbody fume incidents across diverse carriers — including some fume occurrences leading to flight diversions and hospitalized passengers and crew — across JetBlue, Austrian, British Airways, American Airlines, Spirit, Lufthansa, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar, Germanwings, Turkish, Air France, Delta and others.
Airbus, airlines, the FAA and international regulators are familiar with and have paid attention to these events and yet they keep occurring. We don’t hear about them as a systematic issue, and I have to wonder if Airbus is doing enough, proactively enough, about it?
Many airlines have offered pre-flight dining in business class. Eat your meal in the airport before boarding, go right to sleep on board. That’s a nice option for short overnight flights.
Of course not everyone want to show up at the airport early to eat. And where this has been tried it’s generally presented either as a choice (eat beforehand instead of on the plane) or a shortened service where the food remains substantive. Not so at Fiji Airways.
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 »
