New and notes from around the interweb:
- Twitter is dominated 40% by the President and 25% by complaints about airlines. I’m somewhat troubled by a government official using their official twitter account to complain about personal treatment by an airline (they’re immediately assisted by Delta..). On the other hand, while the FTC regulates most businesses U.S. airlines have their own separate regulator at the Department of Transportation. (HT: @DennisLennox)
So sorry to be missing this-waylaid by endless/unexplained flight delays (thanks @delta). And no alternate choices available despite wasting hours calling. Drives home that consumers are just at the mercy of the airlines; sure would be nice to have some meaningful #competition. https://t.co/1Uha3oIZCR
— Rebecca Kelly Slaughter (@RKSlaughterFTC) August 19, 2019
- The cost of 5 new gates at corrupt Atlanta airport has balloned over 50%. And since the gates now won’t come online for over three years, the cost could grow further still…
- The only international chain hotel in the Northern Mariana Islands is the Hyatt Regency Saipan. You wouldn’t think it would be this hard for them to renew their lease from the government.
- Delta sues chatbot vendor over data breach your personal information and credit card information may have been exposed, but Delta isn’t telling you or compensating you, but they’re going after compensation themselves.
- Long-suffering Puerto Rico is seeking regulatory relief to attract more international air service but Delta and union pilots and flight attendants object fearing the territory’s ultimate aim is to permit foreign airlines to fly between San Juan and the U.S. mainland. Households in Puerto Rico have an annual income that’s less than one-third the U.S. average so the correct response to Delta et al is why do you want to keep poor people poor?
- Did Avianca bribe government officials with free tickets and upgrades?
- Reports suggest that when former Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg – forced out by China – was asked to hand over a list of airline employees who had participated in Hong Kong protests, he handed over a list that included only his own name. That’s a great story, but I’mm skeptical, and it’s far from confirmed. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
Gary, did you even read the article on the data breach?
On August 8, Delta filed a suit against the Philippines-based vendor. The carrier wants to recover “millions of dollars in costs” it spent investigating the breach, notifying its customers, and paying for free credit monitoring products for affected passengers.
I’ve been to that Hyatt on Saipan. It’s one of only two good hotels on the island(the Kensington being the other). The rest are… of lesser stature, and because of the contaminated water, you have to be careful and make sure the hotel has an RO system, which can be hard since the other hotels can be difficult to get ahold of as the staff may primarily speak Chinese(Imperial Pacific) or Japanese(Coral Ocean).
Please keep us updated on the Cathay Pacific CEO rumor. If true, that would be AWESOME.