Category Archives for General.
Hertz keeps taking reservations it apparently cannot fill, leaving even its best customers waiting hours for cars, plus why LAX is hemmed in by an endangered butterfly, Aman’s new Texas Hill Country resort, Delta’s uniforms, and more.
News and notes from around the interweb: A single temperature sensor at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport was being used for Polymarket bets on Paris temperatures so someone stuck a hair dryer next to it and made $34,000 this month. Charges have been filed. polymarket was settling Paris temperature bets on a single Météo France sensor sitting near the Charles de Gaulle runway perimeter – basically unguarded – the guy bought the long-shot outcome (like “22°C” when everyone expected 18°C) for pennies, since nobody thought it’d hit – then he walked up to the probe and briefly heated the air around it with a portable heat source, spiking the reading just long enough to register as the daily max This makes plenty of sense to me: Tim Cook’s compensation was about $75 million in each…
American Airlines explored a merger with Alaska, and while those talks reportedly did not advance, the two carriers are now working on a revenue-sharing deal that could deepen an already unusually close partnership. That matters because American badly needs stronger relevance on the West Coast, while Alaska gains more global reach and loyalty value by tying itself more tightly to a larger international network.
A Delta passenger who appeared intoxicated was removed from a flight after landing, but the story took a darker turn the next day when she returned to the airport with little memory of what had happened. Witness accounts suggest she may have been drugged, raising the possibility that what looked like a routine removal of a drunk passenger may actually have prevented something much worse.
American Airlines served a business class meal with glass in it, plus Southwest gate-checking bags despite empty bin space, Alaska and Bank of America extending their card deal, better meals returning to American at Heathrow, and more.
JetBlue strands passengers 100 miles from their destination, plus the first known filmed inflight meltdown from 25 years ago, a bizarre Southwest seat strategy, the psychology of elite status, and more.
Chicago O’Hare now has its own rap for taxiing aircraft, plus a monkey taking over a hotel room in Mexico, Marriott promising China members notice before Bonvoy gets worse, a coolAeroplan redemption for Epcot fireworks, and more.
An Abraham Lincoln documentary somehow broadcast on Houston air traffic control frequency, plus an Air India pilot denied entry to the U.S. for carrying marijuana, SFO’s easier new Waymo pickup, Southwest priority boarding changes, British Airways inflight voice calls, and more.
American Airlines IT keeps finding new ways to fail in public, plus a useful inKind referral boost, the bizarre question of whether anyone has their spouse unpack them after a trip, Siete cookies coming to Southwest, and more.
Room service used to be one of the clearest signs you were staying somewhere better than an Airbnb or a limited-service chain: hot coffee in a pot, breakfast on a cart, and food delivered with some sense of occasion. Now even premium hotels too often send up plastic containers in a paper bag, stripping away one of the last touches that made paying more actually feel worth it.
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 »
