Category Archives for General.
Most Amex points don’t get used for travel—they’re redeemed for gift cards, statement credits, and shopping, which keeps Amex’s average redemption cost low and makes the best travel redemptions possible for everyone else. Also: Delta’s new Sky Club plans, “straight to jail” travel content, It’s Always Marriott, a DOT frequent flyer authority critique, and the GLP-1 airfare angle.
Southwest Airlines is back in dress-code drama after a passenger accused a flight attendant of telling her to “pull your shirt up” before she could fly, saying the comment singled out her body and birthmarks.
The clash is awkward for an airline that built its brand on LUV and once leaned into cheeky marketing—and it highlights the core problem with airline attire rules today: they’re vague, discretionary, and enforced unevenly from one crew member to the next.
A major airport covered itself in “call to advertise here” ads—then apparently posted the wrong phone number, sending a steady stream of calls to a random guy who has no idea what’s going on. Plus: Capital One buying Brex, Heathrow ending the liquids rule, Southwest’s “coffee surprise,” Admirals Club Provisions expansion, and more.
This Marriott only runs heat or air conditioning at a time—if your room needs the other mode, the “solution” is to open a window. Also, Qantas is closing the Emirates First Class workaround, Ted Cruz spotted flying to the beach as Texas braces for ice, and more.
$1,700 for first class and a box lunch with a shrink-wrapped sandwich is ridiculous. United takes heat for selling “first class” without seatback screens or even USB power, while Capital One lounge regulars at DFW say the food has improved again.
News and notes from around the interweb: Will Singapore Airlines new first class debut on New York or Los Angeles? L.A. is more likely with the latest schedule change. One of the most exciting aspects of Singapore Airlines’ new cabin product launches this year is a long-overdue brand new First Class cabin – originally destined for factory-fresh Boeing 777-9 aircraft some five years ago, but now making its debut on retrofitted Airbus A350 ULR aircraft instead, around a year from now. With the ULRs plying daily New York JFK, Newark and San Francisco routes on a year-round basis, it’s been logical to assume that one of those cities would be first in line to progressively see the new products from Q1 2027, but a change is in store. A schedule update taking effect from 1st…
A British Airways passenger says the traveler seated next to him on an 11-hour Johannesburg–London Heathrow flight was served 10 mini bottles of Bacardi within the first few hours. The neighbor became heavily intoxicated and vomited on himself, the seats, the floor—and on nearby passengers—while the full flight left no way to move. When he complained afterward, BA offered a £50 future travel voucher and, in his telling, treated it as a bad passenger incident rather than overserving by crew.
Elon Musk and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary’s Starlink spat has spun into a new bit: Musk musing about buying Ryanair and “putting someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge.” Plus: JetBlue’s JSX partnership ending, a near tail strike involving American’s new A321XLR, Scott Kirby praising Flighty, meal-voucher strategy during delays, and a claim that how you fill out a credit card app can affect approval.
A report claims airline employees were stealing aircraft parts and then selling the components back to the carrier—an allegation the airline is now denying. Plus: a “world record” standby list for an inaugural flight, a passenger spooked by a “JetFuelCantMeltSteelBeams” Wi-Fi network name, Southwest gate magic in Denver, and more.
News and notes from around the interweb: MileagePlus members, be afraid. ($$) Veteran of Apple Card (all branding, very little consumer value) and… Delta. Richard Nunn, a former Comcast executive hired in May 2023 as CEO of the loyalty platform and to launch Kinective Media, is leaving. So is Luc Bondar, the vice president of loyalty, who has run MileagePlus day-to-day for nearly 10 years. United has made a splashy permanent hire to replace Nunn and Bondar, naming Jarad Fisher as its new vice president for loyalty and president of MileagePlus. Fisher helped build Apple’s credit card from 2015 to 2020, and earlier in his career, he worked in loyalty at Delta. I flew American Airlines on four different days in the eight days following their launch of free wifi, and I finally got an…
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 »
