One of the most frequent questions I’ve gotten over the past couple of months is from American AAdvantage members with tickets for travel on LATAM, wondering whether they’ll be able to credit the flights to their AAdvantage accounts and earn miles. It looks like the ability to do so will continue through September 2020, based on new information about when LATAM will leave the oneworld alliance.
Having a variety of unique questions with free form answers is one solution. In fact, I applaud JetBlue for taking this approach. One of the questions, though, is stirring controversy on social media.
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.
Travelers hate airline fees, whether it’s checked bag fees or change fees, so it’s a great issue for politicians to grandstand on. The FAIR Fees Act is not a serious proposal.
American Express is running a pop up Centurion lounge in Manhattan next weekend. They want to be where their customers are, and they want to be where their customers are shopping.
Other pop ups have foretold where they wanted to offer a permanent lounge. For instance they had a pop up at LAX before getting a deal done to build a lounge there. They did a London pop up and then announced a London Heathrow Centurion lounge.
The person in the window seat usually has control over whether the window shade is open or closed. However courtesy plays a role too. On overnight flights across time zones window shades should be closed whenever possible – many passengers are trying to sleep, but it may be light out early. The outside light might also interfere with an aisle seat passenger seeing their laptop screen and getting work done.
Reasonable requests should be accommodated, though it’s up to the passenger in the window to make the trade-off decision. One key to peace on board is good communication.
American viewed the Chilean portion of a LATAM joint venture as ‘not a huge piece’ and they wanted to get the agreement done with the carrier across the rest of South America – not matter what story they’re telling now, with Delta poaching the LATAM partnership.
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.
It’s the simple kindnesses that mean the most, and they touch all of us when they’re done for the people who need them the most. So it’s no surprise that a Lion Air crewmember’s actions on a domestic flight in Indonesia – from Surabaya to Palangkaraya – are spreading like wildfire around the world.
Video captures a simple human interaction, and it’s nice to think that as impersonal as travel has become that every so often people are just people and care for each other.
I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the defendant here because New York JFK is, after all, owned by the Port Authority of New York New Jersey and it’s I think it’s reasonable to assume that’s just how business is done there.
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 »
