My American Airlines flight from Austin to Chicago was delayed 5 hours on Tuesday. The plane was there, skies were clear, and though American had just sued their mechanics the day before there were no maintenance issues. Instead we didn’t have a crew.
I was up front for the flight and I wondered how the planned 8:15 a.m. flight would be catered. Usually when my morning flights have been delayed past noon we’ve still been served breakfast.
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.
Icelandic punk rock band Hatari was flying Tel Aviv – London on El Al after performing in the ‘strictly non-political’ Eurovision Song Contest where they held banners that said “Palestine” in the colors of the Palestinian flag while voting was announced. And in a possibly related matter they wound up assigned to middle seats in the back of their aircraft.
My wallet has a bunch of credit cards sitting behind credit cards. It has my drivers license, office security access card, and Priority Pass cards. That doesn’t even begin to cover it though because I’ve got my insurance cards, AAA card, and some business cards too.
Overstuffing – and simply using – a wallet wears it out faster. I don’t like investing a ton of money in a wallet because it’s simply not going to last the way I use it.
The Transportation Workers Union has posted a piece of video from Tuesday’s LaGuardia airport employee question and answer session with American’s President Robert Isom, where the union President goes off on an extended rant.
He declares that the situation may “erupt[..] into the bloodiest ugliest battle that the United States labor movement ever saw that’s what’s gonna happen” and suggests that “if we ever get to the point where there’s self-help we are gonna engage in absolutely vicious strike action against American Airlines the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
If Congress refuses to fund $1.1 billion that the administration is requesting for “border operations,” the Department of Homeland Security has asked agencies to come up with how they would re-allocate funds to pay for it, each essentially paying a ‘tax’ out of their budget.
The TSA has proposed taking loose change passengers leave behind at airport security and using it to fund ‘border operations’.
A reader writes in that he’s staying “at a no-name, forgettable Sheraton in a medium-sized city” where there are “3 full-service Marriott properties nearby.” A housekeeper “left her manifest.. out on her cart” and there are “3 ambassador elites on a single floor.” He thinks that says there’s something wrong.
There are rumors that some Ambassadors working for Marriott may be assigned as many as 300 top tier elite members, and there are reports of some Ambassador elites not hearing anything at all from their personal agent for months at a time.
Lufthansa’s transatlantic joint venture partner United Airlines eliminated award charts and introduced dynamic award pricing to their own flights (but still prices partner awards based on their hidden chart). Here they followed Delta’s lead.
Now a Lufthansa executive has revealed that the Miles & Mile program plans to move to dynamic pricing of awards.
Air Italy, 49% owned by Qatar Airways, is a partner of British Airways and their mileage currency is Avios.
The airline will sell top tier Gold status for 500 euros (US$558) or Silver status for 200 euros (US$223).
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.
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 »
