Category Archives for Airports.
ThanksAgain is a rewards program where you register your credit card, and it scans your transactions for eligible activity and offers you points – that can be converted into frequent flyer miles or gift cards.
It began years ago as a general retail rewards program. Many dry cleaners were included. Then nearly a decade ago they pivoted to being largely rewards for airport spend.
Chicago O’Hare was the number one airport in the world for cancellations on Wednesday, with 172 flights dumped, while 550 flights (or 48% of the total) faced delays. Chicago Mdiway, with fewer total flights, was in the top five for cancellations and 51% of flights were delayed.
This is a major undertaking. In 2019, before the JetBlue partnership and when American was squatting on slots and had partially abandoned the New York market, sales in the terminal were $107.4 million across 21 food and beverage, 3 duty free, 12 specialty retail, 4 currency exchange and 8 travel essential outlets.
A Minneapolis – St. Paul airport employee has been caught recording passengers in men’s bathroom stalls, and charged with “11 gross-misdemeanor counts of interference with privacy.” He’s apparently been doing it since back in February. Another employee noticed the concessions staffer trying to take pictures of him from underneath the stall in the gate E2 bathroom – and went to police. The suspected admitted that he’d been taking videos inside of bathrooms for months. His cell phone had 143 bathroom videos taken between August 11, 2022 and February 14, 2013 showing males “at various stages using the bathroom.” Still photos were also found from inside bathroom stalls, and of airport video surveillance footage of a male passenger “with low pants exposing his [buttocks].” Airports have cameras everywhere and numerous law enforcement agencies on site, making…
Normally when you enter a jet bridge you’re taken to your aircraft. And then on the other end of the journey the jet bridge takes you into the terminal. At Minneapolis – St. Paul airport gate G13, in what seems like some sort of infinite regress, the jet bridge will simply take you to… another jet bridge.
The MSP airport shared time lapse video of crew “marrying” two jet bridges.
One of the unique features of Washington Dulles airport is that, despite building an expensive train system, they still use “mobile lounges” to ferry passengers across the airport from their D concourse and to bring passengers from some international flights directly to customs and immigration. These people movers were built in the 1960s.
A woman driving a vehicle in front of New York JFK’s terminal 5, home to JetBlue, wasn’t following traffic instructions. The security officer directing traffic was having none of that, and beat the hood of her car. The driver, though, wasn’t going to take that lightly. She got out of the vehicle, went to her trunk, and pulled out… a bat. The two proceeded to tussle, and a second person in a bright security vest came over to assist. But it was a bystander who intervened to shut things down, grabbing the bat and helping to subdue the driver.
And all I can think is, well, just another day at New York JFK?
Prior to the pandemic, American Airlines was growing its Charlotte hub to 700 flights. They got new gates and were doubling down on their Southeastern hub, with its low costs and access to Sun destinations. Charlotte was still second to Dallas – Fort Worth, where they were growing to 900 flights.
American’s future in Charlotte may be about to get even bigger, since the airport has started work on a new 10,000 foot, $1.6 billion runway west of the terminal.
Austin’s airport has been one of the fastest growing in the country for several years. Their main terminal needs to grow to accommodate this – at peak times passengers are packed in so tight it’s barely possible to move. Gates are in constant use with no real room for more flights, either.
One way the city-controlled airport planned to manage growth was with a separate ‘South Terminal’ for low cost carriers. They leased space to a private company for 40 years, which built the terminal, and has been housing Allegiant and Frontier. The terminal is just six years old, but the airport changed its mind.
American Airlines recommends arriving at the airport two hours before departure for domestic flights, and three hours for international flights. United Airlines recommends the same thing.
This week the Austin airport publicized recommendations to show up two and a half hours early for domestic flights and three for international. And Austin’s airport, while busy, has check-in desks right next to security, and the gates just past the checkpoints. There are no airport trains, and very few long walks. So what gives?
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 »
