You may have heard of the Pan Am Dining Experience where you can eat dinner on board a replica of a Pan Am 747.
It turns out that’s not the only way to eat dinner inside an aircraft. I ate dinner inside a retired L-1011 at the Delta Flight Museum before going onstage to emcee the Freddie Awards a couple of months ago.
Airlines see themselves as selling transportation between A and C at a certain price. That a connecting itinerary stops at B is immaterial.
A passenger believes they are buying a seat on a flight from A to B and then on to C. So it’s ok to use only the seat from A to B, and not use the seat they’ve paid in full for from B to C.
But the airline thinks travel between A to B is a totally different product with a different price.
United’s computer malfunction last week was an inconvenience to huge numbers of travelers. I even think it’s endemic of the broader problems at the airline.
I’m not sure, though, that it justifies a class action lawsuit. Not everyone agrees with me, however. Especially plaintiffs lawyers.
It’s not just Celebrity Apprentice and Miss Universe, or even the eponymous Donald Trump clothing line at Macy’s (manufactured in Mexico and China, cough) … or celebrity chefs like Jose Andres unwilling to open in the new DC Trump hotel property…
… now even the FAA is eliminating any vestige of Trump branding. (Who knew it even existed in the first place?)
A collection of the most interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
It turns out that ATMs have been disappearing from airports because people use cash less than they used to, so they don’t generate enough fees to cover the extortionate demands of airports to allow them on premises. US Bank has lost millions on their Minneapolis-St. Paul ATMs.
One of the blog’s commenters left a bit of a cryptic note about a possible American Express Centurion lounge at Washington Dulles.
Back in May I explained American’s ingenious path to combine to a single reservation system with US Airways.
That process begins next Saturday, July 18.
Airgrub is an app that lets you order food, pay, and arrange pick-up from airport vendors.
The idea is to save time on short connections while still getting your meal. Sort of like using the Tortas Frontera app for sandwiches at O’Hare.
Yesterday Spirit Airlines began flying Los Angeles – Baltimore. (On August 20 they will begin flying Los Angeles – Atlanta.)
If you’re not tall, don’t need the cushion of redundant flight schedules to get you where you’re going in the event of cancellation, and especially if you can pay attention to and avoid all of the fees along the way there are some great deals on transportation to be had from Spirit.
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 »
