Category Archives for Airports.
Kona airport on the Big Island of Hawaii closed Monday afternoon after discovering cracks on the runway. The airport has a single 11,000 foot runway. They quickly brought in contractors to mill and resurface a 10′ x 10′ patch of runway, and expect to complete resurfacing in order to reopen service on Tuesday.
The national past time may once have been baseball. For Indiana it’s basketball. And with the upcoming NBA All Star Game just over a month away, the Indianapolis airport has installed a regulation basketball court in the center of its main lobby as well as other decorations throughout the passenger terminal.
A passenger traveling through Washington Dulles airport had her backpack stolen with her laptop inside. There’s almost no worse place to steal something than an airport, if you can get cooperation from officials. There are cameras everywhere. But she was on her own to investigate – after receiving nude photos of herself via online messaging.
According to social media account ‘Only in Dade’ a pipe burst at the Miami airport, in what appears to be the American Airlines D concourse, and that reports are that toilet system “black water” spilled out onto the concourse.
Supporters of Palestinians – and in some cases of Hamas – have been taking over roads leading to airports, blocking access at places including Chicago O’Hare, New York JFK, and Los Angeles and elsewhere.
This has been a huge inconvenience to travelers that are missing flights, and probably doesn’t gain any sympathy from them. Still, it’s probably better to protest at airports than the planned and since-cancelled protest at the Holocaust Museum. But what are they trying to accomplish exactly?
Here’s a scam that savvy travelers need to watch out for. The internet, and especially Facebook Marketplace, has exploded with deals offering to sell unclaimed luggage and all of its contents at a deep discount – think $10. Sometimes they say it’s for charity, other times the $10 even includes shipping, but it’s too good to be true and these offers are not real.
A share in my social feed reminded me of this incredible story that links Chicago O’Hare and Al Capone. It’s really two stories, but stay with me until the end.
Airlines and airports generally suggest showing up 2 hours before a domestic flight and 3 hours before an international flight. This is insane, and completely unnecessary.
Delta Air Lines has been lobbying to modify flight restrictions at Washington’s National Airport, specifically targeting the 1,250-mile perimeter rule that limits long-distance flights. Congress has been looking for a deal to give them something, not not all of what they want. United may have found a workaround so that no airline takes advantage of the new opportunities Congress provides.
TSA has often failed to catch over 90% of contraband going through checkpoints, there have been tens of thousands of misconduct complaints against the agency’s staff, and yet we haven’t seen repeats in the U.S. of 9/11 largely because there aren’t as many threats as we think, they’re harder to carry out than we imagine, and because we’ve reinforced cockpit doors and passengers would no longer sit docilely by as an attack was carried out.
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 »
