Category Archives for Airports.
A major oil pipeline from Houston, Texas to Linden, New Jersey was hacked Friday evening and that’s wreaking havoc. The pipeline network supplies nearly 45% of East Coast fuel consumption, totaling over 2.5 million barrels per day gas and jet fuel from the Gulf Coast to the southeast especially but also northeastern United States.
A tipster shares that Prospect Airport Services at Charlotte’s airport went from “300 passenger service agents to 30 because of low wages. They’re offering a signing bonus, but the $9 pay isn’t attracting qualified candidates.” That may provide some insight into challenges at Washington’s National airport, and all over the country finding someone – anyone – to help passengers in need of a wheelchair make it to their flights.
Washington National airport built an entire new concourse to replace one miserable gate. Gate 35X was a bus gate that served 14 remote stands for 50 seat regional jets. The new concourse, in contrast, supports 14 large regional jets.
Just after the opening of this new concourse for American Airlines flights, which will also feature an Admirals Club, American Airlines shared some construction updates with employees as part of a question and answer session on earnings call day last week.
Early in the pandemic I did a bit of cleanup of my recurring subscriptions. I cancelled my Gogo monthly internet service, saving $49.95 a month. And I asked CLEAR for an extension. They pushed my membership renewal date out three months.
Well, I asked CLEAR for another three month extension and they gave it to me. And now I’ve asked for a THIRD extension.
Wait times at London Heathrow immigration hit 7 hours on Monday and a passenger collapsed. An airport executive told U.K. parliament that “police were being called to deal with tensions that flare up as people queue for hours at a time.”
Manual U.K. Covid processing – checking of forms and tests and evidence of booked future tests – is taking so much time that it’s potentially increasing the spread of the virus.
TSA posted to its website that sunscreen had been added to the list of medically necessary items that passengers could bring through security checkpoints, independent of the rule limiting each liquid to 100 milileters and liquids in total to 1 quart per passenger.
Now they say this update was posted in error.
At the start of the pandemic the TSA began allowing passengers to bring 12 ounces of hand sanitizer through the checkpoint, separate from their freedom baggie of liquids.
And now travelers can also bring a full-sized bottle of sunscreen, since sunscreen has been added to the TSA’s list of ‘medically necessary’ liquids, gels and aerosols.
For years TSA has been warning that if you don’t get a ‘REAL ID’-compliant drivers license you won’t be able to fly and I’ve explained that isn’t true because you can fly without ID, in fact people do it all the time.
In fact, the TSA has now posted a video to its social media explaining the process of flying without ID.
The FAA doesn’t even have authority over the name, but won’t recognize the change until they’ve made paperwork adjustments. And they won’t make those adjustments until the Clark County Commission adjusts its own paperwork. And waits four to six months.
A year ago a nationwide class action lawsuit was filed against the TSA and Drug Enforcement Agency over seizing the cash of travelers at airports.
The case started when a woman helped her elderly father downsize from a house into an apartment. He didn’t trust banks and kept his life savings of $82,000 squirreled away. She convinced him that she would set up a joint bank account with him, and took the money home with her to Boston – but the government took it all away.
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 »
