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.
Unapologetic Willie Walsh is the CEO of IAG, parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. And here’s what he expects from customers:
Wednesday’s Sriwijaya Air planned 2200 mile flight from Guangzhou, China to Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia reportedly had to turn around and go back to Guangzhou because “the plane’s front door wasn’t closed all the way” however “indicators in the cockpit inaccurately showed that the door was closed all the way.”
Back in 2012 Ryanair floated the idea of ‘standing seats’ to pack more passengers in and lower costs.
And Airbus has a patent for ‘double decker’ seating. But neither idea is supposed to be real or is approved for flying — anywhere.
A passenger and his companion were kicked off a United flight from Chicago to Houston on Monday after he “asked a Middle Eastern man if he had a bomb.”
Muhammad Ali Jr. — son of the great boxer who passed away last year — was traveling with his mother back from Jamaica earlier this month where she had been giving a talk about black history. He says that he was detained for two hours and questioned twice about his religion.
China Airlines has at least 2 business class award seats available nearly every day between now and the end of the schedule (except January 2-6, 2018), for San Francisco – Taipei.
Meanwhile, Star Alliance member EVA Air has fantastic availability from their various North American gateways (New York JFK, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver).
Food tastes different on a plane than it does on the ground. Your taste buds are dulled at altitude. Most planes are pressurized to 8000 feet, while newer generation aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are pressurized to 6000 feet.
That’s why tomato juice is a surprisingly popular drink on planes (and here I thought it was because tomato juice is an excellent source of vitamin c and vodka).
Years ago all economy passengers were equal in assigning seats, although when I first became a frequent flyer United would block the seat next to me as an elite so that if it was possible to have an empty seat next to me I would.
And then they introduced economy plus seating, extra legroom seats that elites could reserve free (and at the time it was also available to full fare customers and to Star Alliance Gold members too). United didn’t initially monetize those seats.
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 »
