American Airlines and its flight attendants union were in Washington, D.C. this week for what the Association of Professional Flight Attendants described as ‘last ditch’ talks before a strike. Leaks from the National Mediation Board suggested that if a deal wasn’t reached by early June, flight attendants would be released to strike.
However the week’s negotiations ended, there is no deal – and no declared impasse by the National Mediation Board.
A year ago U.S. passport renewals without paying extra for expedited service were taking months. Things have gotten much better, and expedited service recently turned my daughter’s passport around in under two weeks.
To speed things up, the State Department briefly introduced online renewals as a test, then they removed the option. It’s back (in beta).
The first officer, who had been handling the controls, accidentally pushed the control column forward and reduced speed, causing the plane to drop from approximately 1,000 feet to just 400 feet above the ocean rapidly – at a rate of over 4,000 feet per minute. Warning alarms sounded due to surface proximity.
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 is a crowded market, and having a U.S. connectivity partner only with Alaska is limiting. Taiwanese media is reporting that Starlux is looking to join the oneworld alliance, putting them on stronger footing against their larger Taiwanese long haul rivals.
Two passengers at Seoul’s Incheon Airport have gone viral on Korean social media for playing tennis in the entrance to the terminal on Wednesday. They can be seen hitting a tennis ball back and forth to each other.
Avatar Airlines is a startup – some might call it fanfiction – that’s been claiming it’s getting off the ground since 1992. They used to call it Family Airlines. The founder even went to prison for tax and securities fraud in connection with raising money for the venture.
United Airlines is planning to expand its operation of Boeing 737s flying out of Tokyo Narita airport to other destinations in Asia. The world is different, demand is different, and United has unique assets worth trying to deploy – to see if intra-Asia flying from Tokyo works, and if not to fail quickly and pivot.
Aviation analytics company Cirium has released on-time performance data by airline and airport for May.
Rio Las Vegas was called out by Hyatt for violating elite breakfast benefit rules when they started limiting Globalist entree selections. They’re still doing it anyway, and now have a new devious plan to limit breakfast expense at the property.
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 »
