On Friday night’s American Airlines flight 292 from New York JFK to Delhi, a passenger urinated on a seat opponent. Unlike recent similar incidents, though, this wasn’t a case of the man walking up and aiming at the victim. I
Flight time is the only time it’s possible to achieve inbox zero. There’s nothing wrong with having a show on in the background, but the opportunity where no one can really reach you – come by your office, call, have a video meeting – is a fantastic heads down chance for crossing things off your list, finishing documents, or even just thinking about a problem and taking notes.
A Boeing employee won a Powerball lottery jackpot for $754.6 million. She bought the ticket when she saw the jackpot had reached 747 million because, 747, and it was the week Boeing had just delivered its last 747.
Big merchants like accepting credit cards, because it’s a convenient way for consumers to pay, and puts money right in their bank accounts. But that comes at a cost, which they’d rather not pay. They want the government to legally require banks and payment networks to provide their services for less.
Retailers don’t want to come out and say this, of course, so they cloak their argument in doing good… for the poor, whom they claim are the ones paying credit card fees. And they claim that rewards cards, which bring in bigger spenders who buy more and are more expensive, especially hurt the poor. That’s not actually true.
Consumer advocates have pushed for the federal government to mandate more seat width and legroom for passengers. The Department of Transportation can’t do this by fiat, but they’d hoped to argue that airlines pack to many people into planes and that this is unsafe; that if a plane needed to evacuate it couldn’t do so quickly enough (90 second standard).
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American Airlines flight attendants have been working towards a new contract since before the pandemic. The union says they’re far apart, and that they have filed for federal mediation. That’s the first step towards a strike.
Airlines publish their schedules nearly a year in advance, but the schedules that they publish are just placeholders. They are selling tickets for flights that are not what they intend to actually fly.
While American Airlines has been selling its summer schedule for 8 months, they only finalized what it would actually be last weekend.
During Senate confirmation hearings for President Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) asked a rapid fire set of questions that amounted to a knowledge quiz. It was awkward both listening to the questions, as Budd tried to appear as though he’s an expert in the asking, and listening to the answers as Washington knew the answers to exactly zero of them.
And in answering it was clear he didn’t have enough familiarity with the issues to speak about them more generally, even if he didn’t exactly follow the questions.
The reason I shrug my shoulders a bit at the new Kansas City airport terminal is because it’s Kansas City. You go there if you want barbecue that hides the quality of meat and the cooking technique with a thick tomato-based sauce.
If you’re Kansas City and want to be part of the national conversation, you make sure your new airport terminal has… gender-neutral bathrooms.
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 »
