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.
Russia has elections next weekend. Putin’s power is secure, but he still has an aggressive PR campaign to look tough in advance of the polls. So we get a stream of Putin tough guy messaging, including that he gave the order to shoot down a Pegasus Airlines 737 in 2014.
Around 3 a.m. on February 17th Justin Deemie broke into a neighbor’s apartment to steal her keys. He needed her car to flee to the airport.
He drove to the Peoria airport, tried to ram the stolen SUV into the terminal, and then “breached security to get onto a tarmac and board an empty plane.”
American Airlines began the race to charge checked bag fees. First it was a second checked bag fee, then fee for the first. It became industry standard with Southwest remaining as the outlier.
With passengers charged for overhead bin space they began carrying more onto the plane. With planes largely full for the past several years there hasn’t been enough bin space to accommodate everyone, leaving the last passengers to board having to gate check their bags usually meaning that they must collect those bags at baggage claim.
A drunk Ryanair passenger was yanked off a flight after threatening to stab women onboard. Ryanair flight FR4332 from Manchester to Tenerife had to return to its departure point to deal with the man. Passengers reported that he “had a bottle of whisky on the plane” and shouted at women near his seat.
Strangely Aeroflot thinks that it’s elite frequent flyers causing all the problems and not, as I’ve suggested, infrequent holidaymakers on low cost carriers drinking too much.
On flights where some passengers have to gate check bags it won’t be those who pay extra to board early and queue up in group two. It will be those who don’t pay the $9.
In April and May and August through end of year you can fly round the world — with stops in Hong Kong, Bali, and Frankfurt — from just $891 on Singapore Airlines.
The American Airlines pilot who was arrested for attacking one of the airline’s ground agents sure seems like a piece of work — and not just for this one incident where he is reported to have pushed the woman and grabbed her by the neck.
American and British Airways, along with Delta and their partners, are offering premium economy roundtrips from the East and West Coasts to many cities in Europe starting at $753 roundtrip. That’s an incredible deal.
American is investing in the domestic fleet, adding seat power and bigger overhead bins and high speed internet even as they’re cramming in more seats. AAdvantage has been devalued, but so have most of their competitor frequent flyer programs. There are a lot of things that the airline really has going for itself. There are fantastic assets and improvements that shouldn’t be overlooked, and should even be celebrated.
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 »
