News and notes from around the interweb:
- Airline meal vouchers are just credit cards restricted to certain spend categories so you can add them to your Starbucks card or in the case of United vouchers “purchase food related gift cards in the MileagePlus X app and earn extra miles on UA!”
$15 airport dining credit from delayed flight 3/20
byu/TheFoxsWeddingTarot inunitedairlines - Hotel mounts desk with drywall anchors, what could possibly go wrong?
Entire desk and bench fell out of the wall while I was sitting on it. Hotel didn’t even apologize.
byu/BambiBabooshka inmarriott - American Pilots Warned About Violating D.C. Airspace “Secret Service agents visited one captain at his home after he breached the airspace.”
- Luxury hotel apologises for refusing to plug in terminally ill child’s breathing device (HT: @abcpp)
- I appeared on the Loyalty Leaders podcast talking about what changes at Southwest mean for frequent flyers
- Southwest cutting staff at BWI, LAX, San Jose, and Burbank
- The Southwest Free Bag Hack Is Ending. No More Turkeys, Tire Rims and Kitchen Sinks.
Skiers, marching bands and parents moving kids into dorms have long made use of the generous [checked bag] allotment. Some fliers were even more creative.
Craig Wetter hauled two kitchen sinks from a wholesaler’s outlet in Sarasota, Fla., where he lives, to apartments he was rehabbing near Chicago last month—all with the help of Southwest. The supplier wouldn’t deliver there, and the prospect of paying for shipping would have blown the money he saved on the sinks. They just barely fit into a large suitcase.
“Yep that’s right, everything including the kitchen sink,” Wetter said. “It sounds kind of crazy but it worked.”
“We know this is tough news to process for yourself and all your affected Cohearts…” Oh my lord.
Looking good, Gary, and great conversation with David on Southwest.
On the the SWA layoffs: It’s wild that they are cutting staff in the middle of the summer travel season (June 1st?!) So, they’re doing the short-term profit (by firing everyone, reducing costs). But, it will come at the long-term expense of losing market share, worker and consumer loyalty. In Gary’s link to flyertalk, I appreciate that the poster there actually included the response by Local 555, which called it a ‘poorly worded’ announcement. Bah! The union proceeded to explain how management has abused its power, practically lied to them and their members, referring to previous reductions at FLL, IAH, and ATL, calling this recent update the ‘nuclear’ option and calling out SWA’s ‘weakness’. Pretty tough stuff. This is why you want a union to have your back in harsh times like this–otherwise, you’re ‘at will’ and ‘gone’ in minutes without a defender. In solidarity.
@ Gray — I have successfully added United and ANA meal vouchers to my Chick-fil-A account.
I got two meal vochers in recent years. I went to my favorite wine store with the first. I used the second at a local bar. I just asked them to enter the digits and it worked with no problem.