Grandma Heading To Meet Newborn Grandchild Leaps From First Class Seat, Tackles Passenger Storming Cockpit [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Hero grandma stops unruly passenger from storming cockpit (HT: Cheryl L) She was flying to meet her new grandchild and wasn’t gonna let anything stand in the way of eventually making it there.
    @amorfatitestlab We now have some video footage from @delta flight 1042 Which departed from Atlanta, destined for Tucson had to be diverted because of a passenger storming and attempting to gain access to the cockpit door as well as opening the planes emergency exit doors. She was able to bypass flight attendants and make her way to the front. Thanks to @Nicky my mom, who was sitting in first class in the window seat so bravely decided to take action and defend herself and others on the plane. With her heroic effort and the help of a handful of good citizens on the plane they were able to successfully and SAFELY divert back to Atlanta and handle this situation on ground. Big shoutout to my mom from preventing a potential tragedy. #delta #flight #emergencylanding ♬ original sound – AmorFatiTestLab

  • Banks are scaling bank on credit card approvals especially for more marginal customers, but not only.

    Total new credit-card openings across four major lenders fell 5% in the second quarter, marking the first decline in more than a year.

    At American Express, new account openings fell 6% from a year earlier. But the average fee per card rose to $117 from $101 a year earlier, driven by stronger uptake of premium cards.

    Lenders tend to market their cards heavily, but recently they have been targeting consumers with higher credit scores. In April, more than 87% of card-related mail volume was prescreened, meaning the offers were only sent to consumers who already had met certain credit criteria. That is the highest level in nearly three years, according to Competiscan, a marketing-analysis firm.

  • TSA Asks Passengers to ‘Stop Hiding Animals in Weird Places’ After They Bust Woman with 2 Turtles Stuffed in Bra

  • American Airlines will partner with Porter Airlines out of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport. I guess they gave up waiting on Connect Airlines (Waltzing Matilda Aviation).

  • Etihad is bringing two more Airbus A380s back into service, bringing their total to 9. The 10th will not see flight again. These planes were once thought permanently retired. Apart from being special, spacious aircraft their interiors are phenomenal, especially in first class (Apartments) and the one seat above first (Residence). Whle not as ornate as the Emirates version of the feature, they offer a shower in first class and a private shower inside the Residence as well.

    These A380s currently fly to Paris, London, Toronto and Singapore. Hopefully we’ll see a return to New York!

  • Oh deer.

  • When you take the airline’s ‘free hotel’ after they cancel your flight and you’re stuck overnight. Reminder that if you’re in a position to go straight to a hotel you book yourself (and potentially submit to the credit card used to pay for your ticket, if it has trip delay coverage) instead of waiting for the airline to provide you a room.. that may be desirable.

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

  1. On the banks, what’s “marginal” supposed to mean?

    On AA-Porter, that’s awesome! Billy Bishop is a cool airport to fly in/out of.

    On Etihad, I, too, hope they’ll bring back their a380 to NYC. Have wanted to try it.

  2. Also, Gary, I saw your recent ‘best credit card offers’ recent repost; yet, the new Citi Strata Elite just launched today (Sunday, July 27). I’m sure you’re working on a separate article about that; in the meantime, for those that care, DoC had some good posts about the features of that new card. It’s basically the return of the Prestige, minus several important benefits. Ugh.

  4. In regards to Porter; they are not just at YTZ. They have a new E195-E2 fleet that flies all over Canada and the USA (including SFO>>YYZ, LAX>>YYZ, etc). They currently partner with Alaska Airlines and you can earn MP miles on Porter now. I hope the same will come true with AA.

  5. @Isaac — For real, they’ve been expanding, rapidly, which is wild (since, you know, the whole trade-war and threatening-to-invade thing has reduced demand). And yes, they also fly their E195 to LGA these days, though that one goes to YYZ, not YTZ. That said, the Dash 8 on EWR-YTZ isn’t bad at all. Interesting how their other ‘partners’ include Delta and AeroMexico (SkyTeam), British and Qatar (OW), and Singapore (Star Alliance), so, it’s not like they’re ‘loyal’ to any particular alliance… yet.

  6. The absolute scariest part of this article is the X picture of Elizabeth Whitehead and her hotel security issue. Those eyebrow’s & makeup would stop any intruder sweetheart. Ughhh.

  7. @ 1990 — The credit card companies must be referring to my household. Why do they care if we opened 16 new cards in May? We’re both still under 5/24, but maybe we got a temporary ding to our credit scores. Oh well, there’s always next month!

  9. @ 1990 — No doubt. They still allow us, but they have certainly slowed the roll. I miss the good Ole days where you could get a new Citi AA card every 30 days! That was before they called it churning.

    Saving the earth outsized all the churning! I had an unhappy spouse that day. “Honey, guess what I just spent $xx on!” Best. Deal. Ever.

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