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.
When Scott Kirby departed American Airlines as its President he walked away with $13 million and lifetime travel privileges. He immediately became United’s President.
Kirby probably thought the role would be even bigger. And it may still happen in 2020.
British Airways offers reasonably good award availability, and it’s no secret why. You don’t just pay miles for awards on their flights, you pay a huge cash co-pay, a practice .that a former American Airlines pricing executive called unethical.
There are several ways to reduce those surcharges, such as booking one way awards for less than a roundtrip. However there’s another trick or glitch that allows you to reduce fuel surcharges on premium cabin tickets.
When checking in with bags, airlines used to ask two questions: Did you pack these bags yourself? Have they been outside of your possession?
The questions were routinely mocked. They never caught a terrorist. Little did I know they were actually important to uncover rogue mothers packing bags on behalf of their adults sons.
A passenger snapped two photos of a flight attendant during an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on October 12, posted them to Facebook, and they’ve gone viral both online and in media with worldwide coverage in China, Australia, the UK and beyond.
The flight attendant, Mabel Goo from Malaysia, doesn’t mind the attention — finds it ‘very nice people say such kind words’ but prefers “to focus my attention more on my work with AirAsia” where she’s part of their “cabin crew Fun Team.”
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.
During Delta’s earnings call the airline’s CEO said miles are worth a penny apiece.
What Delta has done is adjusted its mileage program so you get more consistent average, low value.
For more than six years I’ve been saying that inflight internet will eventually be free. Since I started making that prediction JetBlue introduced free inflight internet, Aer Lingus has announced usage-capped free wifi, and Delta’s CEO has started saying it’s going to happen.
American Airlines isn’t going to lead the industry to deliver this. Their model “will be charging for wifi.” However they could get dragged into offering free wifi if major competitors do it.
So much for notions of membership. A US airline club used to be a members-only club not just an extra amenity to pay to add onto your ticket. You could access it as a member. In the old days when you didn’t need a same day ticket to clear security you could go wait in the lounge to meet an arriving passenger.
As an historical vestige of that some airline clubs would even let you request gate passes after 9/11 as a service to its members.
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 »
