Alaska Airlines had twice the usual number of baggage handlers call in sick since Friday morning, though the airline says this is not part of a coordinated job action. As a result many bags didn’t make it to their destination. That’s frustrating for customers, of course.
What’s notable to me, though, is the Alaska Airlines apology. There’s nothing mealy mouthed about it. There’s no hedging. It’s not offered in the third person.
SkyTeam member and Delta partner Alitalia has been a basket case for years. It’s poorly run, and indeed has largely been run for the benefit of its unions with the help of the Italian government.
One financial backer after another has lost their investment. The government is anxious to find its next victim to take over Alitalia. Who will take the bait?
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.
They say that Delta has improperly used the term flagship in some press releases – confusing consumers into thinking Delta has American’s great Flagship product.
An airport dining facility needs to be fast. A first class dining facility needs to be properly staffed to attend to first class passengers. This visit to American’s Flagship First Dining was neither.
Now take a look at the vegetable ramen they served and see if you can spot anything wrong with it?
British Airways has a strangle hold on London’s Heathrow airport. A third runway at Heathrow would expand the airport’s capacity, and BA doesn’t want competition. However if a third runway does get built they believe that the majority of the extra capacity should be assigned to them (in the form of takeoff and landing slots).
American Airlines has launched two new codeshare relationships this week. Both loaded into the schedule on Sunday.
It took nearly a decade for Southwest Airlines to inaugurate Hawaii service from the time they publicly advertised for someone to manage certification of their planes for long flights over water. When Southwest does something new, it seems to take awhile.
However with Hawaii firmly under their belt, could Europe be next?
The American Express Centurion Card (a.k.a. “Black Card”) has a $7500 ‘initiation fee’ and just raised its annual fee to $5000.
What if a card issuer, though, said “hold my beer – those fees are for pikers” and came out with a $10,000 fee card and an up front charge as high as $200,000?
If the U.S. government is watching the skies, and if Santa is real, then the U.S. governnment knows it and should be tracking his every move. In a Snowden-level plot to keep the public believing both of these things simultaneously, or in a fun move to engage the public and especially small children, U.S. air defense command tracks Santa each Christmas Eve – and has every year since 1955.
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 »
