Category Archives for Airports.
United Airlines will purchase the last two Spirit Airlines Chicago O’Hare gates for $30 million, significantly escalating its strategic battle to push American Airlines out of the critical hub. With both airlines locked in an intense fight and billions in loyalty revenue at stake, United’s aggressive move sharply raises the pressure on American as the two carriers are in a pitched battle at the airport.
Waymo can finally take riders to SFO, but airport rules still force drop-offs at the rental car center while Uber and Lyft can go straight to the terminal. Also in this roundup: Charlotte’s lounge pipeline is finally real, United and American keep battling in Chicago, a former Chicago migrant shelter becomes an IHG Ruby hotel, plus new transfer bonuses for February.
Newly released video shows a man charging through the main TSA checkpoint at Atlanta’s airport, knocking people down and injuring three screeners as officers yell “Breach!” and “Everybody freeze!” A former professional baseball player in the line grabs him and slams him to the floor — and when the man tries to surge forward again, he’s subdued and hauled off in a wheelchair, later charged with interfering with security measures and simple battery.
ICE is using a smartphone app called “Mobile Fortify” to scan faces and capture contactless fingerprints, instantly pulling back names and biographical data — and court filings say the same encounters are being followed by revocations of Global Entry and TSA PreCheck.
That turns “trusted traveler” into chilling of speech. DHS runs both the surveillance and the program, and being “under investigation” can be enough to lose your status even if protesting itself cannot legally be a disqualifier.
A passenger’s duffel eventually made it to baggage claim in Pittsburgh—but not before the carousel delivered its contents first, one sock and one pair of underwear at a time. The timing was so perfectly awful it looked intentional, though the most likely explanation is a bag that popped open somewhere in the baggage system or after a TSA inspection.
New “revitalize Dulles” renderings are in after a DOT request. For now it’s all concept work, not an approved project, but it tees up a real fight over who controls Dulles modernization, how it gets funded, and naming politics.
A Mercedes sedan drove through the glass entry doors at Detroit Metro and into the Delta departures lobby, slamming into the check-in area and sending debris across the terminal.
Syracuse airport officials approved a paid billboard from an employment law firm — then rejected it over one line about “harmless flirting.” The firm sued, the airport rewrote its advertising rules mid-case, and a federal judge still granted an injunction, calling the “misleading” rationale “nonsense.” The fight now is over a simple question: can a government airport pick which messages travelers get to see?
An 80-year-old man pushed his wife through Tenerife South Airport in a wheelchair until staff at the security checkpoint noticed she was unresponsive and unusually cold. Medical assistance was called, she was confirmed dead of natural causes, and authorities activated the airport’s protocol for discovery of a body—while the husband was questioned and later released.
A federal judge blocked DHS from trying—again—to void the TSA’s union contract, ruling the agency can’t sidestep a prior injunction by issuing a “new” justification for the same outcome. The decision keeps the 2024 collective bargaining agreement in force and preserves workers’ grievance and arbitration rights while the case continues.
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 »
