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.
San Antonio politicians decided to ban Chick-fil-A from opening in the airport over perceptions of the chain’s politics disagreement with the chicken restaurant’s donations to certain charities. Buffalo pressured concessionaire Delaware North to withdraw Chick-fil-A from its plans and will (disingenuously) paint the move as voluntary.
San Jose airport has a new approach.
Both American and Delta have invested heavily in truly usable internet, which distinguishes them both from United whose internet rarely works when I fly them.
American says they are now 95% done with their project to install satellite wifi in their aircraft, and that they will complete the project by May. What that means is that if you’re flying an Airbus narrowbody (A319/A320/A321) or a Boeing 737 you should have fast internet on board.
Airlines were ranked for their cleanliness based on traveler feedback across five areas: seating, toilets, tables, carpets, and cabin panels.
I always marvel at ANA for its cleanliness, down to flight attendants cleaning lavatories continuously throughout long haul flights.
HABITAS hotel and hospitality management group co-founder Oliver Ripley was charged with “grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and falsifying business records” over what appears to have been alleged as a fraudulent charge back on his American Express card. He has pled to a mere misdemeanor and claims it was all a misunderstanding.
He says that his then-girlfriend Victoria’s Secret model Sara Sampaio refinanced her Manhattan condo and was left “with a $48,000 tax bill” which he put on his American Express card. Then she left him.
While the TSA generally argues that ‘it’s not sexual assault when the government does it’ in the case of Linlor v. Polson they took the argument even further.
The US Supreme Court could decide if there’s any limit to TSA authority because of a cert petition recently filed.
Late last month British Airways made worldwide news when a flight scheduled from London City airport to Dusseldorf, Germany instead landing in Edinburgh. Apparently the wrong flight plan was used. The plane flew to Edinburgh and back to London City the night before and that’s what was repeated — passengers discovering the error when they were welcomed to Edinburgh upon landing.
Already we’ve seen another European flag carrier flying passengers to a wrong destination, just weeks later.
Delta plans to cut recline by 2 inches in both first class and economy on their Airbus A320 aircraft. They say this is a move to increase passenger comfort, and I actually agree with this.
We shouldn’t celebrate the need for less recline, because it goes along with less comfortable seating overall. Nonetheless Delta essentially failed to make this change earlier and is coming back and doing something necessary to correct that failure.
American Airlines executives have come to love DFW, because they say it’s in their top tier of profitable hubs. They are the dominant carrier by far, and have incredible scale. They’re on their way to operating 900 flights a day from the airport. And with that many flights adding a new city is easy to make profitable as a result of connecting feed from all over the world.
The future of the airport is being hashed out now. Next year the airport’s 10-year use agreement is up, and a new deal is being negotiated. That’s where the broad plan for the future of the airport gets set — what is the airport going to invest in, how much will airlines pay for the space. The biggest airlines get the biggest say. American Airlines is in the driver’s seat.
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.
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 »
