Category Archives for Airports.
On the most recent episode of the always-excellent “Airlines Confidential” podcast journalist Seth Kaplan and former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza were talking about airport codes and they shared several things I wasn’t aware of, though perhaps have heard in passing before.
At many congested airports a ‘slot’, or limited number of permissions, is required to take off and land. Generally airlines have slots granted in perpetuity by government and these become properties rights that they can buy, sell, and trade.
However if they don’t use the slots they have at least 80% of the time, they can lose them. These rules have been waived during the pandemic, and the FAA plans to continue extending them.
In the end though the city is going to get its way – no Chick-fil-A in the airport – but not because they’re expressing equality principles (they caved on those) but because Chick-fil-A said buzz off.
San Antonio airport was at the forefront of a nationwide trend to ban Chick-Fil-A over its political beliefs.
While it would be permissible for an airport to have a policy that all of its food outlets must be open 7 days a week – there is limited space in the airport and they need to use it to feed passengers, especially on busy Sunday – statements made advancing Chick-Fil-A bans have clearly indicated the decision is made on the basis of animus towards the chain’s past support of charities which are inconsistent with LGBTQ equality.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bureau is planning to raise the price of Global Entry, making it $120, and raising the price of other similar program so that they match as well. However children under 18 whose parents are part of the program (or who apply together) will be free, and CBP plans to expand Global Entry to immigration preclearance facilities (or at least make the rules consistent with practice) and to U.S. territories.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has been published by the Department of Homeland Security authorizing a significant increase in biometric information that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be able to collect.
The government redefines biometric to include behavioral characteristics along with biological characteristic that can be used to identify someone. And it outlines new types of biometrics that they plan to authorize themselves to collect.
This month Delta Air Lines is rolling out anti-microbial bins at security checkpoints in their terminals at Atlanta, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia and New York-JFK.
TSA screening bins have more germs than the monkey in outbreak. Your fellow sick passengers touch the bins, they even put their dirty tissues and handkerchiefs in them before going through the nude-o-scope pockets empty.
The federal government submitted false statements in court to defend terminating global entry applications for New Yorkers. Now the government said they just didn’t know what they were talking about when making the claims, rather than intentionally lying.
The real question here is whether’s it’s a bigger problem if the federal government lies to the courts, or if the people responsible for trusted traveler programs do not know what information they’re receiving, or what information they need, in order to determine eligibility?
The U.S. currently only permits 15 airports to receive flights from Europe (including the U.K.), China, or Brazil. That’s because passengers arriving on flights from these places are supposed to be specially screened for Covid-19, since they along with Iran are deemed high risk areas. This policy will be lifted on Monday, September 14.
Noor Bin Ladin, who spells her last name with an ‘i’ rather than an ‘e’, was born in Switzerland. Her mother, a Swiss citizen, left her father in Saudi Arabia and raised her family in Europe. Bin Ladin spends much of her time in the United States and shared what airport security is like.
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 »
