Category Archives for Commentary.
Passengers aren’t supposed to be able to board the wrong plane. Boarding passes are scanned at the gate. There’s a manifest — airlines know how many people are supposed to be onboard. When passengers are in the wrong seat, there’s usually another passenger assigned that will say something. But it happens. Occasionally one person, or a couple traveling together, wind up in the same city.
Spirit Airlines has probably the worst reputation of any airline in America. The problem is that reputations lag reality. First of all Via Air is far worse. And second Spirit has made tremendous strides.
It’s easy to anchor on Spirit as the airline who believed their business model required customers thinking they offer a bad product, who refused a pregnant woman water during a two hour tarmac delay and that wouldn’t refund a Vietnam veteran cancer patient’s tickets when he became too sick to fly to see his daughter in the hospital. And that’s why this spoof video of a Spirit Airlines customer service center is so funny.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
As soon as I saw the story of the man who was charged $4600 for a one night stay at a Holiday Inn my immediate reaction was… Expedia.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The US government is ready to see the 737 MAX re-certified by the end of June — mere weeks from now, as American Airlines CEO Doug Parker predicted. Whether or not that happens may depend on getting some other world agencies to go along. They won’t likely have unanimity, and won’t hold themselves to that standard. But I imagine they’ll hold off until they get Europe and Canada, though not China, to sign off with them.
Once that happens it will take time for airlines to go through steps to bring the plane back into their schedule, which makes cancellations through mid-August taken weeks ago by US carriers seem wise — and suggests that the process to bring the MAX back to the skies is proceeding as expected.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Icelandic punk rock band Hatari was flying Tel Aviv – London on El Al after performing in the ‘strictly non-political’ Eurovision Song Contest where they held banners that said “Palestine” in the colors of the Palestinian flag while voting was announced. And in a possibly related matter they wound up assigned to middle seats in the back of their aircraft.
If Congress refuses to fund $1.1 billion that the administration is requesting for “border operations,” the Department of Homeland Security has asked agencies to come up with how they would re-allocate funds to pay for it, each essentially paying a ‘tax’ out of their budget.
The TSA has proposed taking loose change passengers leave behind at airport security and using it to fund ‘border operations’.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
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 »
