Category Archives for Commentary.
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.
Thieves smashed a jewelry case and stole $800,000 worth of merchandise from the Little Nell hotel in Aspen on Friday. They weren’t even wearing masks. They weren’t caught right away, despite video footage, because apparently their feet didn’t smell badly enough.
At least that seems to be the lesson from a robbery that was foiled quickly on December 19 in Wanzhi, China.
American’s Boeing 777-300ERs have 12 lavatories. The line from one of those lavatories was clogged, and it’s a system connected to three other lavatories. That took four of the lavatories – or one third – out of commission.
Flight attendants determined that passengers congregating near the remaining lavatories was a security issue, and the aircraft was forced to divert.
Cargo can be as important – or more important – than passengers on many international flights. In fact there are flights operating largely because of the cargo revenue — which can be cheap to fly and even better for award space.
American Airlines shared some of the surprising cargo they flew over the holidays, as they’re on pace to earn $1 billion in cargo revenue for the year while carrying 1.82 billion pounds of goods including 22,000 pounds of chestnuts, 235,000 pounds of New Zealand lamb, 14,000 pounds of Argentinian beef, and a partridge in a pear tree.
With all of the problems that Marriott has had launching their new program and integrating 3 loyalty programs into one, many customers are frustrated. Starwood members in particular have been disappointed by the customer service standard over the phone with Marriott, and with the way many Marriott properties are implementing the benefits that have been promised. In short, Marriott has failed to deliver.
Two high profile blogs take issue with my argument that as much of a hash as Marriott has made at things, the grass isn’t greener at Hilton Honors. They’re wrong.
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.
Air marshals though are being moved towards the back of the plane where they can see all of the passengers in front of them, instead of having their back towards supposed threats. This new policy goes into effect December 28.
If nothing else they’ll occupy fewer of the premium seats in economy that airlines sell to passengers for an extra charge.
Years later when I started traveling for work midweek transcons in coach were nearly $2000 round trip The idea of paying for first was beyond my comprehension.
The cost of coach trips has come down, and in percentage terms the cost of flying first has come down even more. Part of that is a change in airline pricing philosophy, and part is a change in technology. Instead of just having full fare first class and possibly a discount fare bucket, airlines can price first as a specific upcharge to the prevailing coach rate.
That’s helped them sell more seats up front — Delta sells about 60% of its first class seats, American is closer to 50%. It used to be more like one in ten.
It isn’t Italy’s subsidies for Alitalia that Delta is complaining about. Since Delta benefits from an anti-trust immunized revenue-sharing joint venture with Alitalia, those subsidies are met with silence.
Instead Delta’s CEO has an op-ed this morning complaining about the smaller Air Italy which is 49% owned by Qatar Airways. And since he has no legitimate complaint that Air Italy, or Qatar, is acting against US law or policy he has to resort to deceptive and disingenuous claims in calling for “the Trump Administration to examine this situation and send a strong message to the Qatari government.”
A 21 year old woman flying from Libreville, Congo to San Francisco via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines gave birth to a son she calls Bennel during her first flight segment this month. Her husband – who is a doctor – delivered the baby three hours into the flight.
There were 144 passengers on board when the plane took off, and 145 when it landed. The rear of the aircraft was cleared to become a “makeshift delivery suite.”
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 »
