The airline is beloved, though much of the credit they get is based on past efforts. JetBlue isn’t nearly as good as it once was, they even led last year’s checked bag fee increase. They’ve squeezed seats, just not as much as American, Delta, and United. And their Achilles heel is operational reliability,
Six new cost cuts continue the multi-year quest to become merely ‘a little less bad’ than competitors continues apace.
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.
A man who ate free for a year buying a refundable ticket, accessing the China Eastern lounge in Xi’an, China, and the refunding his ticket. Every. Day. There can be consequences to this scam: Lufthansa sued a passenger and won 200 euros after the man booked and cancelled 36 tickets in a year for the purpose of obtaining business class lounge access.
Another passenger was even arrested after living in 9 different Priority Pass lounges at the Singapore airport over the course of 3 weeks.
The federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that lawsuits are permitted for abusive searches under the Federal Tort Claims Act. An en banc panel of the court decided 9-4 that TSA security checkpoint employees are “officers or employees” of the federal government and that they “execute searches.” The TSA for its part claims not to search passengers, only to ‘screen’ them.
Yesterday I shared a leaked Delta memo showing that the airline would be giving 4% raises to flight attendants and ground employees. In addition the airline said employees could expect bigger bonuses. That’s big news this Labor Day weekend.
The authenticity of the memo was being called into question in some quarters because another (obviously fake) memo was circulating earlier in the week promising 9% raises. However the real memo is.. real… and Delta employees get news of a 4% raise for Labor Day.
I’ve written in the past about Luxury Travel Diary hotel auctions. Unfortunately I frequently forget to check them. Somehow they manage to get great rooms to auction off, and not enough people bidding so — with no reserve — rooms often go for a lot less than I think they should.
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.
Currently American Airlines changes up their domestic first class snack baskets every six months. I don’t love most of what they offer, and boy the contents get boring after awhile. The last changeover was April 10.
While I don’t think the new choices starting October 9 are better the good news is that the airline will begin rotating out contents every two months beginning with this next refresh. Here’s what’ll be in the new baskets.
Yesterday I wrote about video of a woman leading her miniature horse out of airport security, and through the airport, on the way to an American Airlines flight to Omaha.
It turns out there’s also video from inside the aircraft. And the horse has a twitter account, sharing the rest of the story of the flight.
Ground and flight attendant employees get a 4% raise. Employees who receive merit-based pay adjustments will have a 4% increase in the total compensation pool available to them. And bonuses are expected to be higher, too.
Just as importantly the airline communicates that it is investing in solving pain points in jobs, and employees are reminded that they’re empowered to address the most important issues at the airline (safety). It’s a well-written memo.
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 »
