Surprising absolutely no readers of this website, the March 2025 REAL ID deadline isn’t going to happen. The first enforcement deadline, by the way, was in 2008.
Under a new proposed rule – that has not been finalized, even – full enforcement might not begin until May 2027. In the meantime, the plan is to hand a piece of paper to passengers whose IDs don’t meet the standards laid out in the 2005 Real ID Act telling them to get a new one.
The agreement provides 18% – 20% raises right away, full retro pay, plus boarding pay which the union says averages to an 8.5% raise. Taken together this outpaces what inflation has eroded from flight attendant wages over the last 5 years.
Austin is a tricky market with very little long haul flying. It’s been one of the fastest growing airports in the United States, year after year and for years. But air service has grown even faster than demand.
Over the last year there have been numerous protests blocking access to airports including Chicago O’Hare, New York JFK, and Los Angeles. Supporters of Palestinians – and in some cases of Hamas – took over roads, making them impassible, and causing passengers to miss flights.
These blockades probably don’t gain protestors sympathy for their cause.
An American Airlines first class passenger took to social media to brag on his dog’s first flight. Sure, he says, the pet “took a poop in the parking garage” but once firmly ensconced on the floor of the carrier’s first class cabin, he knew it was going to be a great flight.
Point.me, the service that helps you find frequent flyer award seats (and walks you through the process of setting up accounts, transferring points, and making the booking) has a lot of award search data. People are looking for available awards all day, every day.
They already know which programs offer availability the most that their members are looking for, and which programs offer those seats at the best prices.
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.
Twenty three years ago today I was sitting in my office in Arlington, Virginia.
The first news I heard about planes crashing into the World Trade Center came over email. It wasn’t on the newswires yet. I was on an airline industry list, and the subject line was “Terrorists are bombing us with airplanes.” I didn’t think it was real.
Gate agents came onto the plane and saw the car seat – being used – and they “lost their temper, screaming at the mother and the flight attendants.” They had already told the woman it had to be gate checked. Their authority wasn’t going to be undermined.
A year ago Delta Air Lines announced severe changes to its SkyMiles elite program and for access to its Sky Clubs. Employees are talking about bringing back planned changes.
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 »
