Last month American Airlines fully rolled out a new tool called AURA, the “AUtomated ReAccommodation” tool to rebook passengers when their flights are cancelled or delayed.
But this tool does so predictively. And it’s causing seats to be given away from passengers that make their flight.
New York’s mayor says half of the city’s hotel rooms are being used to house asylum seekers. Los Angeles said: hold my beer.
In March, voters in LA will consider an ordinance requiring hotels to report their number of vacant rooms each day, and make those rooms available to the homeless.
How much inequality matters, versus absolute living standards which most people think has risen substantially over time, is something people can debate. I just wish they would do this debate less based on their one-off Mexico vacation. And if you are going to insist that it was, maybe spill a few paragraphs of ink considering wealth inequality between the U.S. and Mexico?
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Whether or not a single Orlando and Las Vegas flight can work for Delta is a question, though these are two leisure destinations that are said to almost always work for everyone, or that at least can be filled at some fare by everyone.
A couple was caught reportedly joining the mile high club – on video. A passenger who saw the man and woman enter the lavatory pulled out his phone and recorded their exit – one at a time, without anyone else entering in the meantime.
The woman opens the door first, and has a serious look on her face, while you can see the male passenger still inside the lavatory – with a huge grin. A few moments pass and then he steps out, too – a bit more serious but with an eyebrow raise as he heads back into the aisle of the aircraft.
A college student living in Los Angeles used miles to commute to school at U.C. Berkeley to save on rent. He was in a one-year program for a Master of Engineering in Transportation, was living rent-free, and planned to return to L.A. Why pay rent in the Bay Area when you can just fly up there three times a week (although he did have to commute daily for a few weeks)?
Two Americans vacationing in Costa Rica were charged $29,994.33 for one Uber ride. It was supposed to be 29,994 a single Uber ride due to a suspected currency conversion error. The couple claims that the cost of the ride should have been 29,994 Costa Rican Colón – or US$55.16.
Complaining to Uber, they were told to contact their bank. The bank says Uber’s the one who charged them this way. And since they paid via debit card, their bank account has been fully drained. They shared their story having made it to Guatemala with “no access to funds” for their five year anniversary.
Many travelers are at the mercy of airlines when things go wrong. They wait in line to be rebooked and curse at how bad their options are. They become, as my grandfather used to say, “farbissen” or mad at the world.
I write a lot about taking control over your own travel destiny. Here’s what that means.
Everyone acknowledges what JSX does is legal from the DOT and FAA who allow it to even ALPA. ALPA argues they take advantage of a ‘loophole’ by using aircraft with no more than 30 seats, never ‘intended’ to support an operation that gives passengers the similar access to convenient terminals as private air travel offers to the wealthy. And One Mile at a Time is sympathetic. He acknowledges that JSX is safe, and the rules ALPA wants to impose are non-sensical, yet wishes “to be balanced.”
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 »
