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.
Emirates is only marginally useful as a transfer partner. Their awards are expensive and they impose draconian fuel surcharges as well. You can also transfer to Qantas and redeem saver inventory at similar or better pricing in many cases.
Probably the most misunderstood thing in all of aviation is speed tape. Passengers see what looks like ‘duct tape’ on their plane, and they worry whether it will hold together. The plane doesn’t look safe and first impressions over safety matter right now with aviation safety top of mind given the issues we’ve seen with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug, air traffic control mishaps, and pilot error over the past couple of years.
If two people sit together on a plane and hit it off, and they wind up together in the end, then it’s an adorable story – like the couple who met on a Southwest Airlines flight, had the pastor from their row officiate at their wedding, and made it all airline-themed.
Usually, though, it’s just a little bit creepy. But women, knowing men are on the hunt for a more attractive seatmate, are using this knowledge to their advantage.
I’m on the road 11 out of 12 weeks and during that time I’m flying American, Delta, United, Alaska, Southwest, Qantas, British Airways and Volotea. I don’t fly United a ton. Their route network and frequencies don’t help me a whole lot out of Austin, where they’re the fourth largest airline. I long avoided them because they had the worst wifi in the industry and I try to be productive inflight. Their inflight internet has gotten better, even before bringing on StarLink which is the best wifi in the skies (I’ve used it on JSX and on Hawaiian). I hadn’t experienced this on my most recent United flights, but this past week flight attendants locked the lavatories for descent. That’s not something I’ve ever seen on another U.S. airline. It’s something that United does increasingly…
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.
A large number of United’s cabin crew seem to be very unhappy with the contract their union negotiated. To me, the biggest issues are that after five years without a raise, the contract doesn’t really appear to produce economic terms that are better than competitors even though other flight attendants got raises first, and it makes concessions like allowing the airline to put crew up in hotels that are merely ‘tenantable’ while they’re on the road.
As part of a more customer-centric focus, one of the key things I’ve been suggesting American should do is reverse this policy. Now the airline shares that all customers will once again be able to be added to standby in-person with an agent.
I’d take the Capital One lounge over this one in a heartbeat. The coffee here is going to be better than in the Chase lounge or Delta Sky Club. It’s decent as far as airport lounges go but I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out or spend extra time here.
One guest relays, “apparently the pool wasn’t worth fixing after it turned green and the hand soap is in a takeout sauce container.”
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 »
