The British Airways Data Breach Fine is a Huge Injustice, Where’s Your Piece of the Money?

by Gary Leff

plane tails
Jul 08 2019

British Airways is facing a proposed $230 million fine under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for a hack last summer compromised personal information on approximately 500,000 customers accessing its website.

This proposed fine is more than 3 times the total fines meted out during GDPR’s first year. In the year after GDPR’s passage there were 200,000 investigations, 64,000 of which found fault, resulting in total fines of approximately $70 million — nearly 90% of which was from a single case against Google.

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Terribly Named Flewber Offers Private Flights for $400 One Way ($700 Roundtrip)

by Gary Leff

Terribly Named Flewber Offers Private Flights for $400 One Way ($700 Roundtrip)
Jul 07 2019

Flewber sounds like Uber, and it’s app-based booking of private flights in the Northeast. They serve Boston, New York, East Hampton and Nantucket. And at $700 roundtrip — or $400 one-way — they even include a rebate to Uber to the airport.

They’re expanding to Philadelphia and DC and within 2 years to “Florida, Texas, California, Washington state, and Chicago.”

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Delta Passenger’s $500 Offer to Switch Seats on a 3 Hour Flight Fails

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Jul 07 2019

It doesn’t appear this worked, and I think I know why. $500 on a domestic midcon flight should be enough, the premium over extra legroom coach to buy first class is usually much less than that, and there’s a good chance that someone up front didn’t pay anything at all. However if flight attendants are going to get into the middle of a transaction, they’re going to need to be afforded a cut.

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It’s Now Possible to Buy Tickets for Virgin Atlantic’s New Business Class, and Fly it In September!

by Gary Leff

virgin upper class seat
Jul 07 2019

Virgin Atlantic announced their brand new business class in April but it wasn’t yet possible to buy a flight with these news seats.

The product will debut on the airline’s new Airbus A350 aircraft. Every seat is angled towards the window, has power, and the center seats in the 1-2-1 configuration have privacy screens. All seats are fully flat with direct aisle access.

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Nigerian Social Media is on Fire Over a Man Who Refused to Switch Seats With an Elder

by Gary Leff

Nigerian Social Media is on Fire Over a Man Who Refused to Switch Seats With an Elder
Jul 06 2019

Seat switching etiquette is – I think – fairly well established, at least here in the United States. You’re entitled to the seat on your boarding pass. If someone prefers a seat other than the one to which they’re assigned they should ask politely, but it’s entirely up to the person with the desired seat whether or not to switch. They can say no for any reason, or no reason.

If you want to switch seats it pays to have a generally desirable seat. Don’t offer me a bulkhead window seat in first class, or a middle seat by the lavatory in coach. If you have a poor seat and you’re asking to switch be extra nice, have an extra good reason, and even consider offering something (find a Coasian solution: offer your worse seat plus cash).

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