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.
The Airbus A220 has been a popular aircraft. Delta was able to buy a large number of them cheap before Airbus took over sales of the program from Bombardier. It has a low cost of operations and can fly surprisingly long distances. The wide fuselage makes it a passenger favorite for comfort because each seat gets extra width.
American Airlines doesn’t have an interest in the A220. Instead, American plans to pick up more Airbus A319s on the used market super cheap – a cost driven down, in part, by the growing popularity of the A220.
Monday through Friday of this week American Airlines will be testing a new signature cocktail for premium cabins. There are two different beverages they’re trying out and are soliciting customer feedback.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker says that the plane is safe to fly today – with American’s 737 MAX and using American’s pilots – suggesting that the delay in bringing the plane back into service is so that it’ll be safe even when operated by other airlines.
He dishes on how they’re scheduling the plane’s return to service, and whether or not delays have been the result of politics.
Starting “early next year” IHG Rewards Club is introducing a new earn and burn relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Smith hotels. There will also be some form of elite benefits at Mrs. and Mrs. Smith properties, because IHG says that their “most loyal members” (presumably Spire Elites, but also “including InterContinental Ambassadors and Kimpton Inner Circle members”) “can expect free room upgrades whenever available and a free gift, called a Smith Extra, on arrival at each Mr & Mrs Smith hotel.”
Now that BA has finally gotten their act together on internet – fuel surcharges on award tickets aside – I’d fly them over American, though I do think Qatar Airways QSuites is better than British Airways first class (and the new ANA business class seems like it may be as well).
Since I rank both Air China (as well as China Eastern) over American, and British Airways as well, is there any airline besides TAAG Angola at the bottom of the list if we were to put together an argument for absolute worst international first class in the world?
The truth is that hotels do regularly sell rooms cheaper through third parties than they do on their own website, they just work really hard to disguise it and to gate off consumers from accessing those cheaper rates – because they want to fill incremental rooms that would go unsold, but without undercutting the prices they can book the rest of their rooms at.
A man running a gold smuggling ring out of Singapore has pled guilty to corruption after airline check-in counter staff flipped on the operation. Apparently he wasn’t just shipping his gold as checked luggage, he was too cheap to pay the excess baggage fees and bribed counter staff to understate the weight of the bags on Tigerair flights to Chennai.
If he had been willing to pay for his checked bags, he might not have been caught.
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.
An hour into Friday’s American Airlines AA2408 from Phoenix to Minneapolis the captain decided to divert to Denver when an “unruly passenger” who told seatmates that “he was on cocaine” locked himself in the lavatory before flight attendants got him to come out when he “eventually li[t..] up marijuana in the cabin.”
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 »
