Ironically there’s a lot of sitting around in travel. Plenty of flight attendants bring magazines or books with them, often now reading on a tablet. One British Airways flight attendant got fired for reading her book upside down (it was a dead giveaway she was drunk).
I have to say though this is the absolute best use of a book on an aircraft. Ever.
Star Alliance carrier ANA is introducing Airbus A380 service between Tokyo and Honolulu. They didn’t really want A380s, but it’s how they got Airbus’ support as a creditor to take over bankrupt Skymark. This new Hawaii service will launch May 24.
We’ve now learned more about the inflight product as well including details of unique business class, coach (“joined to create a lie flat bed”) and first class.
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.
Air Canada, along with Aeroplan’s banking partners CIBC, TD, and Visa, came to an agreement to buy Aeroplan from Aimia.
That gives Air Canada its members to market to right away, and it eliminates expected new major competition between the two from the marketplace before it even begins.
Kim Kardashian posted an instagram story boarding a private Boeing 747, and shares a tour of the aircraft. As her video opens she shares a bit about her avgeek husband Kanye West: he only wants to fly 747s.
IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks are live. These are hotels they’re offering discounted redemption prices for.
There are 13 hotels available for just 5000 points apiece. There are 39 hotels in the U.S. alone at the 10,000 point level. Doubling the redemption price clearly opens up more availability, though it’s sad how few properties are now offered for 5000 points when all PointBreaks used to be that lower price. Four Intercontinental properties are available though.
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.
MileagePlus is offering a discount on roundtrip United economy award travel to and from Europe and the amount of the discount varies based on your elite status level and whether or not you have a co-brand credit card.
United Airlines President Scott Kirby tried several passenger-unfriendly innovations when he was President at US Airways that he ultimately had to roll back like elimination of free water in coach and elimination of elite bonus miles for flights.
There are airlines that managed to successfully move to a policy of charging for water. They don’t charge for lavatory use, is water a similar basic necessity that airlines should provide for free?
I’ve been on flights where an announcement was made at the start of flight that the internet didn’t work — only to find that it worked just fine. That worked out great, not only was there internet but no one else was trying to use it so I had plenty of bandwidth.
I’ve also been on plenty of flights where internet doesn’t work and the crew was aware of this from the prior flight but didn’t say anything until we were up in the air. That’s frustrating because I’d have treated the half hour I was on the plane (on the ground, still with connectivity) differently.
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 »
