There’s a long history of sexualizing flight attendants. It remains a part of the culture in the U.S. but isn’t nearly as overt as it once was. In part that’s because travel is no longer nearly as glamorous, and airlines in the U.S. rarely promote the glamour of most of their travel experience (and when they do it now focuses on product). U.S. culture would no longer be as welcoming of this as it once was either.
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.
American Airlines does not allow pets to be checked as cargo on their Airbus narrowbodies. They are growing this fleet with A321neos that begin delivering at the start of 2019.
Airlines are cracking down on emotional support animals. Small pets can travel in the cabin for a fee, but larger pets need to be checked. Owners of larger animals then may be caught between Scylla and Charybdis unable to bring their animal on board as an emotional support animal, unable to bring them in cabin for a fee, and unable to check them when traveling on half the domestic fleet — and many destinations are served exclusively by these aircraft.
Flight attendants may be given detail on an airline’s food. They rarely pay it much mind, and I usually get blank stares and shrugs when I ask something about a dish before I order it. So I’ve learned not to ask.
Not only did I get a description of the dishes I could choose from, I didn’t have to ask the flight attendant what the wines were. If I ask I usually get another blank stare, “red and white” or sometimes if I’m lucky they will show me the bottle.
When I first started writing about American’s 737 MAX and the miniature lavatory, the airline kept asking why don’t I give Southwest the same hard time?
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is the government agency which manages Washington National and Dulles airports and has a role in construction of the metro Silver line to the airport and the Dulles Toll Road.
The airport authority has resisted making the new contract for its CEO public, arguing that they’re not funded with public dollars but by fees earned from running the airport. Of course the government gave them the airport, board members are appointed by government, and they receive substantial government funding for capital projects, and much of their operating revenue comes from ticket taxes.
The new Marriott program rollout has been riddled with glitches. There are members who still show the wrong elite status, wrong lifetime status, and who still cannot merge accounts.
One interesting quirk of the transition that benefited members was discounted overwater villa award availability at the St. Regis Maldives.
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 really great burger starts with quality beef. It should have processed cheese that melts well. And it should be inside of a potato bun.
Don’t give me ciabatta bread for a bun. Don’t give me a kaiser roll. As good as brioche can be, it’s not well-matched to a burger. The bun is a delivery vehicle for the burger. It needs to be big enough to contain the burger, but shouldn’t be so large that it overwhelms the burger.
Everything you put on the burger needs to fit inside of the bun. You don’t want the burger to fall apart when you eat it.
The key to these rankings is subjective weight that goes into different components of the product. I value personal space more than anythnig else, so a first class configuration that’s four seats across isn’t going to rate as well for me as one that’s two or three seats across.
I’d never rate Air France or Garuda as highly as others — despite phenomenal ground service and attentiveness — because of the lack of real estate each first class passenger gets 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 »
