Choose Your Seats: New Online Check-In Tool Shows Where Women Are Sitting [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Air Canada allowed to test flight attendant’s hair strand for pot

  • Customers sound off on increased gratuity percentages and counter service

    [A]s more establishments switch to a counter service model, customers have begun to ask why they are tipping for no service at all. Others question why tipping in restaurants is necessary in the first place.

    “I really don’t think it should be my job to subsidize underpaid employees, particularly counter employees that are not doing more than a few button clicks to serve you,” said Durango resident Maria Megnia.

  • Sneak peak at new Turkish Airlines business class

  • IndiGo shows female travelers where other female travelers are seated during online check-in

  • Corporate rapper roasted Delta CEO Ed Bastian

    When Delta Air Lines hired him to perform at a party for clients at the Masters golf tournament last year, he did a freestyle rap riffing on CEO Ed Bastian’s tendency to fly economy and sit in the rear of the aircraft—unlike his 9-pound terrier, Oliver.

    “Ed’s in back of the plane, we know it’s tradition, a man of the people, not many leaders like him, walking through TSA, shaking hands with the pilots, all while his dog goes on vacation and only flies private!” James sang.

    Oliver, who recently died at 19 years old, didn’t actually fly private, though he did sometimes join Bastian’s wife in first class. Bastian loved the bit.

    “I don’t know if I ever laughed so hard in my life,” he says.

  • Uber Bubbles “Uber Now Has a Flat-Fee Service That Will Chauffeur You to Champagne and Back — Lunch and Wine Tastings Included”

  • The filters will be changed about as often as they are in airport filling stations. I have FOIA’d filling station servicing records and generally been told no such records are even kept. Great idea but unless FAA requires proper maintenance or the devices don’t require any..

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  2. @ Gary — Ed Bastian needs to be seated closer to others to pick their pockets. Hauenstein is undoubtedly nearby looking for a coach-dwelling Diamond’s miles to steal.

  3. A sign of the times: Indian airplanes are now having to address the concerns that women in India have had when using public transit on the ground too.

  4. At the 2024 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, in the Safran Aerosys booth, I expect some airline executives will inquire if the Safran water bottle filler with a double filtration system can filter and recycle the flushed blue juice from the toilet. This feature could make the onboard blue juice clean and drinkable and help reduce an airline’s carbon footprint and unnecessary plastic water bottle consumption.

  5. “No records kept” could be that they are simply replaced on a schedule, individual units are not tracked. I do agree that’s inadequate, though.

  6. Some airplanes used to have potable cold water dispensers near the lavatories with one use folded paper cups. I used to use them. Less of a reason to get a plastic cup with water from a flight attendant. I haven’t seen such equipment in a while.

  7. This could also be used by ultra-Orthodox and some other men who will not sit next to women who are not their wives or other close family.

Comments are closed.