On the rare occasion I’m in a restaurant and order a Coke I think I share the same reaction as much of the rest of the world when the server says, “We have Pepsi, is that alright?”
I sort of feel for the woman that was just banned from ever flying TAP Air Portugal again. She wanted what she wanted.
When I started predicting seven years ago that inflight wifi would be free within 10 years (so by 2022), people thought I was crazy.
However since that time JetBlue introduced free inflight internet and Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi. Southwest, Delta and Alaska now offer free inflight messaging. Delta CEO Ed Bastian says they’ll do it in a year or two so by 2021.
Another airline has just launched free wifi.
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.
The US government is having the TSA train Saudi Arabia to stand up an air marshal program. It’s enough to almost make you feel bad for the Saudis.
Air marshals have smuggled cocaine, engaged in sex trafficking, and discharged their weapons in hotels and bars. We spend $200 million per arrest on the air marshal program. And to be clear that is not $200 million per arrest of a terror suspect, most are just passengers behaving badly. They’ve never stopped a terrorist.
ProPublica obtained and released a number of Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell’s emails.
Included in the batch was correspondence with United Airlines during their PR crisis surrounding the dragging and beating of passenger David Dao in April 2017, while Elwell was an advisor to the Secretary of Transportation.
Right on the heels of a passenger claiming he needed to fly naked because clothes affect his ‘agility’ and thus his ability to fly, a naked male passenger was detained at Chicago O’Hare after running around outside on the tarmac.
For reasons I’ve never quite been able to fathom there’s a long history of naked passengers in airports. And yet Naked-Air somehow didn’t succeed.
Ironically Wow Air itself provided free flights to journalists to influence coverage, and of course stories about the imminent demise of the low cost carrier turned out to be accurate rather than fake news.
On the preview flight for the first aircraft with new seats every passenger received a Polaris Bear. United’s CEO Oscar Munoz was with the group, first in the lounge and then on the plane prior to takeoff. He was well aware of the aftermarket for these bears. They were fetching hundreds of dollars on eBay. And I suggested to him that United consider getting out of the passenger business, and just sell bears. The margins are much better. He chuckled and said he’d consider it.
On Sunday I asked whether transatlantic low cost carrier Wow Air was toast. I phrased it in the form of a question but pointed out that while the answer to internet posts phrased as a question is almost always ‘no’ in this case it was probably the opposite.
This morning they ceased operations while stranding passengers. Your best recourse at this point if you hold tickets is likely to be with your credit card company. Claims by unsecured creditors with the airline’s bankruptcy administrator are far less likely to be successful.
Boeing has unveiled software changes that should make erroneously engaging the system less likely, and less challenging for pilots if it ever does happen.
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 »
