A London Heathrow-based flight attendant for British Airways has deleted most of her social media accounts as an airline investigation is underway to uncover her identity, after the a U.K. newspaper revealed that she offered illicit onboard entertainment to passengers for a fee.
On Tuesday the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on the perimeter rule at Washington National airport. Limits are placed on the distance flights can operate from the airport in order to limit congestion and noise and to protect Dulles airport for longer haul traffic.
The Boeing 737 MAX is officially allowed to fly again in commercial service. A lot of things need to take place before that happens, but while Southwest Airlines plans to take 4-5 months to get the plane back in the air, American Airlines is far more aggressive – planning to fly it again on December 29th.
Employees of American Airlines and its wholly-owned regional carriers (Enjoy, Piedmont, and PSA) and of the American Airlines Credit Union are being invited to take one of five ‘flights to nowhere’ on the Boeing 737 MAX before it re-enters commercial service at the end of December.
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.
The Department of Transportation is the primary avenue passengers have to see redress when being treated unfairly or otherwise harmed by an airline. Since airlines can’t be as heavily regulated as other industries elsewhere, and lawsuits against them are harder too, DOT was granted broad latitude to combat “unfair and deceptive” practices by airlines.
A new DOT rule defines unfair and deceptive more narrowly than in the past, and these new definitions will have to be used going forward when the considering consumer protections.
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.
After contracting disputes, the government walked away from private contracts to build the airport in 2003, and instead handed out 30-40 contracts to smaller companies and decided to oversee the project itself – which they lacked the expertise to do – instead of hiring an experienced design-build firm responsible for delivering on a budget. The airport didn’t just take 23 years, it came in at triple the cost too.
Effective 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, December 2 visitors to the Hawaiian island of Kauai will have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival. Pre-travel testing for Covid-19 will no longer excuse arriving passengers from this requirement, as the Governor of Hawaii approved a request by the Mayor of Kauai to opt out of the state’s testing program.
A man posted a video to TikTok where he cooks a steak in a Delta lavatory. He puts a Sterno can in the toilet, lights it, and places an aluminum grilling sheet over the seat. Then he puts the raw steak on the sheet and pours white wine over it to marinate (perhaps it’s an old steak he’s trying to hide the spoiling flavor on, a good piece of meat should never require this!). He plates it and returns to his seat. There’s no question he should be banned from the airline, and probably charged with a crime if this really happened as-shown, for lighting a fire in the lavatory.
It’s rather odd timing – when some health systems in the U.S. are being overloaded, and the virus is spreading widely in Europe – but the Trump administration is considering lifting the ban on arrivals from Europe and Brazil. They are not, apparently, considering lifting the ban on arrivals from China which has largely had its Covid-19 outbreak under control for more than half a year.
It would appear that the administration is looking to make this change before the handover of power, so that the story about any future relaxation of restrictions is specifically focused on China – rather than allowing a Biden administration to lift all restrictions at once, making the story about travel restrictions broadly.
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 »
