Dec 25 2017

When a TAP Air Portugal flight from Accra to Sao Tome (the second leg of a continuing flight from Lisbon) was overbooked by three, the airline didn’t seek volunteers but instead selected 3 passengers at the gate to bump.

Usually passengers without seat assignments are at greatest risk of a bump, but two of the women had had their seats assigned for three months. Often the last passengers to check in might be at risk of being bumped, but they checked in early for the flight.

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Dec 25 2017

Apparently a passenger onboard a Russian domestic flight took off his shoes and then his socks and his feet smelled pretty bad.

A fellow passenger, offended by the smell, started an argument with the man on their flight from Moscow to Kaliningrad and that argument continued even as the plane landed and everyone disembarked.

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Dec 25 2017

Customers used to sneak a look at their phones during taxi, takeoff and landing. They tried to be as surreptitious about it as possible, to avoid being scolded by flight attendants. Once the ban on small electronics was lifted, and even though those are supposed to be in airplane mode, customers continue to text, browse, and e-mail until they lose their signal in the sky — and re-commence when their aircraft enters final approach.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a flight attendant say something, or ask a customer whether their typing was to queue a message for later or if they were actually connected despite being told to use airplane mode.

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Dec 25 2017

Border Field State Park is the southermost point in California, adjacent to Tijuana. The US-Mexican border survey which took place following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American war in 1848, began at Border Field.

A US citizen convicted of smuggling “43 pounds of heroin, 47 pounds of methamphetamine and 43 pounds of cocaine” got married there to a woman from Mexico despite being cleared by a border patrol background check.

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Dec 24 2017

Americans “skipped as many as 32 million air trips in the year 2016.” Factors cited by consumers about the hassle that makes travel not worth it including ‘unbundling’ (myriad fees) as well as airport hassles, long lines, and other inconveniences they attribute to the airlines.

When you make travel less comfortable you are leaving money on the table from those customers who choose to take fewer trips.

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Dec 24 2017

The 282 mile flight is blocked at 1 hour and 25 minutes, but as much of that is on the ground in Newark as in the air. Harassing one woman for every 15 minutes in the air surely must compete for some kind of record of awfulness.

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Dec 24 2017

Sheila Jackson Lee is the Congresswoman from Houston, where Continental Airlines was based and where United maintains an important hub. She’s clearly important to the airline.

A 63 year old attorney she says she was involuntarily downgraded to coach (and received a $500 voucher) and that Congresswoman Jackson Lee was in her seat.

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Dec 24 2017

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.

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Dec 23 2017

Today is an amazing day for booking travel to Beijing. American Airlines has $2000 business class roundtrips and I wrote about Delta’s $614 premium economy roundtrips between Boston and Beijing. That’s premium economy for the price of a cheap coach ticket.

Premium economy is also available around this price from Baltimore, Chicago, and Phoenix!!

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Dec 23 2017

Early last month Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia moved to consolidate power, arresting senior princes, the wealthy, and former government leaders under the banner of a new anti-corruption campaign.

The high profile prisoners were held inside the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh. One of the prisoners at the Ritz-Carlton, Major general Ali Alqahtani, died from electric shocks on December 12

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