A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
A fantastic documentary on Pan Am, Across the Pacific is streaming online from PBS. The first episode ‘Airborne’ is now available.
Emirates has imposed some of the highest surcharges on award tickets in the world. Taxes and fees flying New York – Bangkok in business or first class were recently has high as $1736 roundtrip – and that’s in addition to paying with miles.
All of a sudden, though, that’s changed.
The Travelocity twitter account is like the Death Star’s exhaust port, or the vulnerability exploited in the final battle scene of Independence Day.
Jessica Langer shared her ‘earliest internet memory’ in response to someone’s silly question on twitter. It was a slow effort as her father tried to book a flight using Travelocity when she was really young. Langer was offering a genuine recollection, that wasn’t likely to garner much attention, except a Travelocity customer service bot decided to respond.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
South American mega-carrier LATAM, which recently left oneworld and entered a joint venture with Delta, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. This follows a similar move by Avianca.
The bankruptcy filing includes LATAM Chile, Peru, Ecauador and Columbia but does not include Brazil, Argentina or Paraguay. Debtor-in-possession financing totaling $900 million is provided by existing owners the Amaro and Cueto families and by 10% owner Qatar Airways.
We’ve seen social shaming of airlines for failing to block middle seats. Oddly people are shocked there would be others sitting near them on a plane. They’re surprised the airline was selling them a ticket and selling tickets to other people, too.
A new front in the traveler shock and frustration over crowding in the coronavirus era is the airport security checkpoint, which became a big deal today at the end of a three day weekend despite travel still being down over 80%.
Delta and United are looking to restart flights to China. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is largely under control there. It is home to several important business markets. Delta owns a stake in China Eastern and has viewed Shanghai as a hub, while for United the country is their sixth largest international market. (For American, despite owning a stake in China Southern, the country has mostly been a place to light cash on fire.)
However they’re caught up in escalating tensions between the U.S. and China and the President’s re-election strategy.
You don’t think airlines can just provide hand sanitizer to passengers, do you? On Tuesday the FAA wrote to American Airlines granting permission, and the letter they sent offers a window into process the airline had to go to in order to secure the government’s blessing.
Expect hotels to look at ways to cut costs anywhere they can and to use coronavirus as an excuse. Even better when changing consumer preferences make it easier to impose cost savings. Several chains already say they’re trying to make their increase investments in cleaning cost-neutral.
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 »
