Those Embarrassing Boeing Emails Don’t Tell Us Anything New (Or Anything At All)

by Gary Leff

airplane flying
Jan 10 2020

A series of embarrassing emails have come out, following embarrassing text messages which were revealed in the fall. Some perspective is needed here, though.

Companies are frequently undone by emails. DNC emails certainly didn’t help Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential election. Emails hurt Microsoft when the government prosecuted an anti-trust case against it for monopolizing the web browser market (gosh if everyone knew then what we know now). It amazes me that companies store past non-work related emails.

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Qantas First Class Awards Wide Open For Months (Even For Four Passengers)

by Gary Leff

sydney opera house
Jan 10 2020

Flying between the U.S. and Australia in business and first class is among the toughest frequent flyer awards out there. Frequently it requires connecting in Asia rather than flying non-stop.

Right now though there’s incredible Qantas first class award availability using Qantas Frequent Flyer miles. While you’ll find a handful of dates between now and the end of June where a couple of seats are available, starting in July and through the end of the year things really open up.

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Hyatt Regency San Francisco Offers Free Night Awards Again, Can We Win Over Andaz Maui Too?

by Gary Leff

Jan 09 2020

The Hyatt Regency San Francisco has been a long-time, repeat scofflaw of Hyatt’s loyalty program. They have played games to avoid offering rooms to program members for points. However they are once again making award nights available.

Back in 2015 their strategy was to only make standard rooms available as part of ‘packages’ (such as with breakfast or parking included) and thus those rooms were not available for points stays. I pushed and got that fixed, but it’s a game of whack-a-mole and they were back to their old tricks.

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American Is Now Retrofitting 737s AGAIN To Fix Poorly Thought Out First Class Cabin

by Gary Leff

Jan 09 2020

American created ‘Project Kodiak’ to tweak first class: Fixing row 1’s legroom, fixing underseat storage, improving separation between first and coach, and adding tablet holders and USB power to first class.

Kodiak retrofits are underway. One surprise is that it appears there’s a plane with seat back video in for retrofit, ripping out TV screens. American had previously said that these planes would receive their retrofits last so that customers could keep screens as long as possible. That appears not to have been accurate.

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Customer Missed Birth Of Their Child After Being Downgraded By American Airlines

by Gary Leff

american airlines planes
Jan 09 2020

n America Airlines passenger tells the story about buying a paid transpacific business class ticket on American Airlines but being downgraded for their Chicago – Tokyo flight a few weeks ago when their inbound Boston – Chicago flight was delayed.

The passenger says their Boston – Chicago flight was running late due to crew availability (a flight attendant “had woken up late and was on her way”) and that meant arriving into Chicago 45 minutes late. They had to run to their connecting gate, but they made it while the Tokyo flight was still boarding.

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Willie Walsh Retiring As Head Of IAG, and British Airways CEO Doesn’t Get The Job

by Gary Leff

plane tails
Jan 09 2020

Willie Walsh is stepping down as CEO and from the board of of IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling effective March 26 and retiring June 30. He’s 58 years old and has talked about retiring by 60, though this is ahead of schedule. He’ll be replaced by Luis Gallego, CEO of Iberia – and not by the CEO of British Airways.

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