United Airlines is bringing back Los Angeles – Sydney service starting September 10, three days a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It’s part of larger growth in their schedule that includes a return of Chicago – Hong Kong and starting up Chicago – Tel Aviv.
But there’s something really interesting about the Los Angeles – Sydney service.
The latest partner addition is Brazil’s Azul, based in São Paulo. The carrier was started by Dave Neeleman, former head of JetBlue. Azul means Blue. Get it? (And like JetBlue they promote live TV.)
Redemption prices follow Air Canada’s partner award chart and are combinable with Star Alliance flights. And there re no fuel surcharges.
American’s new domestic first class seat is literally the same seat that they use in premium economy, except that it lacks a foot bar or foot rest. The seat is, therefore, premium economy-lite. It’s disingenuous in the extreme to call it ‘business class’.
However on some routes, up until now, that’s what they’ve done when flying Boeing 737s to Latin America. For their Iceland flight though they’re changing this practice.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says that private jets are for the “neoliberal elite” so the populist chooses to fly commercial. Today he’s heading to the U.S. for a visit with President Trump. There aren’t currently non-stop flights between Mexico City and Washington DC. So he’s taking Delta, flying coach, and connecting in Atlanta.
Here’s the Mexican President ensconced in an exit row aisle seat on board Delta flight DL366 from Mexico City.
A 41 year veteran of Qantas lost his engineering job after two women complained about him watching porn on his company-issued iPad. His excuse? He must have momentarily dozed off and the porn just came on without his realizing it.
In other words, the man’s defense – that he brought to the country’s Fair Work Commission to dispute his firing – was that he was sleeping on the job.
The best treatment at American Airlines goes to their top secret ConciergeKey level. They do not release much information about it publicly, but I’ve shared full details before. ConciergeKey is the ‘super secret’ level that George Clooney had in Up in the Air.
With some of American’s best ground services suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve also introduced two new opportunities: more confirmed international upgrades and access to the British Airways Concorde Room at London Heathrow airport.
Marriott’s TownePlace Suites near George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon in Virginia caught fire at 1:13 a.m. this morning. A hotel guest – standing outside the property at the time – notified the manager who called 911. Since the fire was on the roof, there was no smoke alarm.
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.
Now that the Small Business Administration has released detail on the businesses receiving $150,000 or more in “PPP” loans, I was curious to see if there was any ‘double dipping’ by airlines, taking advantage of their own dedicated payroll support and also PPP funds which were meant to allow small businesses to continue to pay their employees.
It turns out there were at least 10.
Late last year American Airlines started locking AAdvantage accounts and cancelling pending award travel for people they believe took advantage of a ‘loophole’ to sign up for multiple Citibank credit cards.
Several customers whose accounts were shut down filed complaints with the Department of Transportation. American has now responded to a formal complaint, and reveals a lot about what they know – and how they know it.
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 »
