A former Politico editor, Garrett M. Graff, has a new oral history of 9/11 coming out on Tuesday, “The Only Plane in the Sky” and here are a couple of excerpts.
The President was on board Air Force One. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice learned about the incident in real time during her daily briefing. The Vice President was in charge in the White House’s underground bunker built for use during a nuclear attack.
The single nuttiest idea in aviation history was published in the Dallas Morning News, an argument by Matt Andersson, the founder of an airline startup (Indigo Airlines), to merge the nation’s airlines into one and have the government run it. Oh he wants to eliminate frequent flyer points, too.
Passengers need a pilot contract because unhappy pilots mean massive delays and cancellations. But a pilot contract is going to mean the airline can squeeze more seats into regional jets. Either way, passengers lose.
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 reportedly stood in the aisle for a full six hour flight so his wife could sleep in their seats.
Was he being selfless, or was she being selfish? Should they have just contorted themselves so that they could both sleep, her head in his lap and his head.. somewhere? And is it ok to stand in the aisle as long as the seat belt sign is on, common space for everyone, or is it rude to block the aisle?
Since norms vary across airlines and have only recently changed it’s not a moral failing of passengers who don’t know or understand the position that any given airline takes here. On the contrary, it’s incumbent on the airline to explain in clear terms what their policy is and why rather than suggesting a passenger wanting to move is doing something untoward.
The retirement of the American Airlines MD80 has been written about extensively and covered across all sorts of media. I am didn’t find the event nearly as momentous and many did, but there were plenty of celebrations as the plane made its last commercial flight – AA80 – from Chicago O’Hare to Dallas Fort-Worth and then media took a trip on an MD80 to park the aircraft in the desert.
While I’ve read reports that American sent the last of its MD80s to Roswell, New Mexico in fact there’s still an MD80 sitting in Dallas and it’s going to stay there.
“Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s deceptive.
Now some hotels that already charge resort fees have introduced venue fees.
Airlines often claim an exemption to European delay compensation rules due to “extraordinary circumstances” that couldn’t have been avoided, and there’s much litigation over this most of which having been resolved in favor of the passenger. For instance while strikes and weather can be extraordinary, mechanical issues generally aren’t.
When airlines don’t pay some passengers who have been stiffed have gotten creative, sending bailiffs to airline offices.
Women were lining up for the lavatory for about ten minutes, and no one was coming out. That’s usually when you hope a flight attendant will put some coffee grounds in there between uses. A flight attendant notices the line, saying to one of the women “you’re still right here” as no one has moved.
When the lavatory door opens a man appears and then “[j]ust a few seconds later, a woman in a matching red jumper also walks out from the cramped room, apparently having just joined the Mile High Club.”
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 »
