Two weeks ago I wrote that United had confirmed cutbacks to meals in domestic first class on flights under four hours outside of departures between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. They also cut several beverage choices.
The blowback was swift and immediate. First they brought back tomato juice. Now they’re bringing back food.
Running out onto the tarmac and chasing after your plane though is a very bad idea. Nonetheless a passenger in Melbourne, Australia who was late for his flight to Adelaide on Jetstar, the low cost Qantas subsidiary, decided to try it.
He “missed his flight Thursday bolted out across the airport’s tarmac, ran up the stairs to a plane, and tried to rip open the locked cabin door” — and was caught on video doing it. But that’s not even the best part.
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 Surgeon General of the United States came to the rescue of a passenger on a Delta flight on Wednesday while enroute to Jackson, Mississippi.
He was headed from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta on Delta flight 1827. The plane returned to the gate when the customer became ill. A passenger lost consciousness while the flight was waiting to take off.
Security wait times hurt an airline’s business for short haul flights. Having to get to the airport early means that total travel time can take as long or longer than driving. In the Northeast for instance Amtrak has taken a lot of business away from the airline shuttle routes between Boston and New York and between New York and DC just because of the need to turn up at the airport earlier.
So if airlines can convince you that total travel time is less than you think — a ‘security wait time guarantee’ — you may be more inclined to buy tickets for those flights.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that British Airways would be joining TSA PreCheck.
Then the updated list of airlines went live on the TSA website — and British Airways wasn’t on it. The strange thing was BA had sent out a memo saying they were going to launch. BA went into damage control mode saying this was misinformation, with non-denial denials.
Delta has extensively praised Donald Trump. Now a lobbying group working for United, Delta, and American has taken out full page ads in the New York Times and New York Post praising him.
They’re happy, it seems, that they’re getting nothing out of an agreement with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. Delta should be happy because out of this effort they’ve improved their competitive position against American.
American Airlines President Isom told employees on Friday how the airline sees themselves in New York. And it’s a departure from how the airline talked about New York when US Airways first took over.
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.
One of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting over the past couple of months is how come I can’t book American Airlines awards on the British Airways website?
This is just a website issue. The space is available to British Airways members, and the impediment is easy to overcome.
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 »
