Category Archives for Airports.
In 1989 David Hasselhof stood atop the Berlin Wall belting out “Looking for Freedom.” Less than a year later East Germans were finally free.
Thirty one years after David Hasselhof stood between East and West Berlin the East’s old airport may finally be freed as the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, replacing Berlin Tegel. It’s a costly reminder of East German-style planning.
It turns out that the quarantine system that’s set up for arriving passengers from China has a loophole: not starting the air portion of the trip on the mainland and transiting an airport with U.S. immigration pre-clearance.
Los Angeles is is considering letting people who take public transit to the airport have priority security. This isn’t PreCheck or CLEAR, just priority line access for the regular security queue, and follows a program at Boston Logan for people who take a shuttle bus or ferry to the airport.
Priority security isn’t actually free, in other words it isn’t costless. “When everybody’s priority, nobody is.” Grant everyone priority and they’re behind everyone else who is also priority that got there first.
Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York all chipped in to buy an airline ticket they didn’t intend to use, just so one member of the group could get past security at the Albany airport. The group decided they all wanted Chick-fil-A but outside of the airport location the nearest one was an hour and a half’s drive away.
Instead of making a three hour roundtrip, 18 members of the school’s cross country and track and field teams chipped in $5.50 apiece for a $98 one-way from Albany to Fort Lauderdale, the cheapest fare they could find at the last minute. They sent team captain Vincent Putrino to the airport.
Wouldn’t it be great to pick up pre-ordered food nearby the lounge you’re headed to and get a discount on the meal?
Bringing more airport vendors on the platform means better customer data – with a broader view and greater understanding of each customer, in order to better tailor offers that move the needle on sales – and cross-marketing to existing customers.
Milwaukee airport’s security manager has been fired after falling for a scam, buying gift cards and sending them to someone in Saudi Arabia posing as her boss.
She’s the security director and she’s not careful dealing with online scammers. That’s not a good look, and she was let go for “substandard or careless job performance.” However what she ran into is very common and part of a multi-billion dollar scam that I’ve run into many times over the past three years.
Airport food locations aren’t actually run by the restaurant names you know. Restaurants will license the concept, and collaborate on menus, with concessions companies like HMS Host, Delaware North, and OTG.
HMS Host had an exclusive deal to offer Starbucks in U.S. airports since 1991. We learned last week that this exclusive deal is over, though existing Starbucks locations should remain in airports through the duration of the HMS Host-airport contract at least.
Here’s what’s next for Starbucks in airports. Hint: it may involve iPads.
Austin airport has been one of the fastest growing in the United States for several years. This past year they inaugurated 9 new gates. There’s now transatlantic scheduled service to London (Heathrow and Gatwick), Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.
Here are 7 surprising facts about my home airport.
Contract ramp agents at the Fresno airport have been fired over a viral video they posted to TikTok on January 24.
Apparently the workers filmed the video while they were on the clock – though after they “were done with work.”
LAX is nearing completion of its Midfield Satellite Concourse. This is a 12 gate extension connected to the Tom Bradley International Terminal via a 1000 foot tunnel. As the airport prepares to open this new concourse this year they are looking for 500 people to become actors, playing the role of passenger. This will let them stress test the terminal.
Want to be one of the lucky few to see the new concourse before almost anybody else?
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 »
