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.
Earlier today I wrote about Swiss first class award space showing up at United.com — something very rare, and when it happens a mistake — and suggesting that it appeared to be phantom availability.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t book Swiss premium cabin awards, in fact Swiss business class awards are wide open this summer.
Swiss first class awards are a unicorn, and people go to sort of crazy lengths for it.
All Swiss routes are showing wide open award availability, it’s definitely not all bookable.
A brain surgeon is suing Austrian Airlines after jamming his pinky finger in his seat’s tray table.
The doctor was flying Brisbane – Bangkok and then continued on Austrian to Vienna and Manchester in business class last year. On the Bangkok – Vienna leg, “the cabin crew had folded out the horizontal table tray from his armrest before serving an in-flight meal during the Bangkok to Vienna leg of his trip.” They “did not return” to put his tray table away, he couldn’t recline his seat, so he tried to do it himself… unsuccessfully.
Qatar Airways now flies the world’s longest flight between Doha, Qatar and Auckland, New Zealand.
This puts them in competition with Air New Zealand carrying passengers between New Zealand and Europe. One competitive response is that Air New Zealand has cancelled its ‘Special Pro-rate Agreement’ with Qatar, a move that Qatar’s CEO says means “we can’t really connect the people of New Zealand to the large international network that we so wanted.”
Yesterday a Pakistan International Airlines flight PK757 from Lahore to London Heathrow was intercepted by Typhoon jets and escorted to London Stansted instead.
What’s especially confusing about the incident is that there was a threat made against the aircraft but when it landed, a “bearded man” was “led off the flight by cops” but he apparently had nothing to do with the threat.
Delta partner China Southern is offering fares between New York and Singapore or Kuala Lumpur from $493 roundtrip.
Great fares are widely available September through December (and somewhat more limited in availability over the next couple of months). Travel is not permitted July 11 through August 25.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to United for this interview with their CEO to be published two days before Oscar Munoz meets with Donald Trump.
A couple of months ago I provided the first blog report of Delta’s testing of complimentary inflight meals in economy on some premium New York – West Coast flights.
Starting March 1 Delta will offer a choice of 3 meals in economy on these flights, and even accommodate special meal requests. This replaces buy on board.
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 »
