American Airlines Suspends Goodwill Compensation Vouchers

by Gary Leff

airline ticket
Jun 22 2020

On June 8th American Airlines eliminated iSolve, the tool frontline employees used to compensate customers for things like broken seats and missing meals. Instead they told employees to ‘de-escalate the situation’ and make customers happy – as long as they gave them nothing.

On June 16th, it turns out, they pulled the plug on paper compensation vouchers as well. And in the worst of corporate doublespeak, they’re telling employees they did this “to provide consistency for our customers.” No matter what the channel is, you get nothing!

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New TSA ID Verification System Is Letting People Past Security Who Haven’t Checked In

by Gary Leff

Jun 22 2020

TSA is rolling out the “Credential Authentication Technology” (CAT) tool broadly. They check both the authenticity of the document and whether the information matches what they have for the passenger’s ‘Secure Flight’ data in their reservation (name, date of birth, gender). If it isn’t a match, the passenger is sent over to the airline to get things sorted.

However since passengers no longer need a boarding pass when this system is in use, they’re proceeding past the security checkpoint without first checking in for their flight

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Did The Head Of Lufthansa’s Flight Attendants Union Demand €1mm Bribe To Agree To Job Cuts?

by Gary Leff

Jun 22 2020

Germany’s Die Welt is reporting that the head of Lufthansa’s cabin crew union demanded “one million euros from Lufthansa” to agree to “job losses and reduced pay” for members as part of the airline’s restructuring and bailout.

The union, for its part, denies these claims as it fights to minimize the thousands of jobs that are expected to be lost at Lufthansa.

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McDonalds Coffee Spill Lawsuit Revisited: United Airlines Spilled Scalding Drink On Child

by Gary Leff

ronald mcdonald
Jun 21 2020

You may be familiar with — and even outraged by — the famous lawsuit against McDonald’s by Stella Liebeck who was burned by hot coffee.

The jury’s $2.7 million award has long been a poster child for tort reform (the judge actually reduced her award to $480,000). That lawsuit brought change though – albeit not to United Airlines.

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Americans Can Visit Dubai Again Starting July 7

by Gary Leff

outside dining
Jun 21 2020

This is hardly peak tourist season for Dubai, with daily temperatures averaging about 100 degrees. Still, staying somewhere like Al Maha Desert Resort seems fantastic for social distancing. You get your own standalone villa with your own private pool. When I was there you could choose to take all of your meals in-villa too as part of the resort’s all-inclusive approach. And redemptions are available every day using Marriott points.

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Cabin Crew Dox Passenger After He Complains About Onboard Service, Get Flight Attendant Fired

by Gary Leff

Jun 21 2020

An Italian customer wrote to Emirates customer service to complain about a flight attendant who was texting using her phone while sitting in the jump seat. He said he’s a Skywards Platinum member, and he was going to complain broadly in social media unless he received compensation. Emirates fired the flight attendant.

Cabin crew, though, doxed the guy and also have been gossiping about him claiming he steals salt and pepper shakers from aircraft and tries to scam ‘to go’ bottles of wine. They want flight attendants to be on the lookout for the guy, looking out for him taking phtoos inflight (since he took a photo of the flight attendant he complained about) because UAE law places restrictions on photography of others.

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Is The Pandemic The End Of Hotel Book-Direct Supremacy?

by Gary Leff

Jun 21 2020

For several years hotel chains have worked to get customers to ‘book direct’ rather than through third party agents because it lowers their distribution costs. They’ve imposed contracts that limit the ability of their properties to offer discounts, and they’ve advertised to convince you that booking directly through them gives you the lowest price, but that’s often not true.

Now that the global pandemic has decimated hotel occupancy, properties are doing everything they can to cut costs and look for business – and that includes cutting more deals with third party distributors.

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