British Airways Reduces Fuel Surcharges, Coach Awards Can Now Make Sense

by Gary Leff

british airways plane
Aug 04 2019

British Airways settled a class action lawsuit over fuel surcharges. See, these fees had nothing to do with the price of fuel (as required by the Department of Transportation). They awarded cash or miles to a whole bunch of frequent flyers, but continued charging the fees — they just stopped calling them fuel surcharges, and started calling them surcharges. In other words, extra fees that no longer even pretend to have a purpose.

While fuel surcharges aren’t a government tax, they are a tax on frequent flyers, a fee for using miles for free travel (ironic, huh?).

Continue Reading »

Slot Controls Don’t Reduce Flight Delays

by Gary Leff

airport newark
Aug 03 2019

Interesting research from Alexander Luttmann at UC Irvine suggests that slot controls don’t actually reduce delays at congested airports because large airlines at major airports “already internalize congestion” when planning their schedules.

That makes sense. Heavily congested airports take longer to get planes in and out. Flight times are longer. That means flights are more expensive — they take up more aircraft time and airlines have to pay their crews more, too.

While the busiest airports see plenty of flights, their largest airlines don’t just keep adding flights because that’s expensive, both for the new flights and for all of their existing flights which suffer greater delays and ultimately get longer flight times.

Continue Reading »

Should You Avoid Traveling to Hong Kong as Protests Escalate and Risk Chinese Backlash?

by Gary Leff

philips center
Aug 03 2019

While violence has mostly been concentrated at major protest sites, police are using tear gas and there have even been protests at the airport. Protesters are planning to appear outside the gates of Hong Kong Disney on Monday.

Until now most tourist locations have avoided also being hot spots for demonstrations, though there have been protests outside the Intercontinental, and also outside the Peninsula. Some tourists have reported being gassed.

Continue Reading »

Two United Pilots Too Drunk to Fly – Again – Passengers Entitled to Over $650 Each

by Gary Leff

united plane docked
Aug 03 2019

Since Glasgow, Scotland is part of the UK and Brexit hasn’t happened yet, this flight delay should be covered by Regulation 261/2004 entitling passengers to significant cash compensation. Given the distance and that passengers won’t reach their destination within four hours of schedule, they’re clearly entitled to 600 euros cash each (US$677).

Continue Reading »

How Much Does a Chef Get to Put Their Name on Recipes at an Airport Restaurant?

by Gary Leff

Aug 03 2019

When you eat at an airport restaurant it may be a familiar brand you’re buying from but it’s usually not that restaurant’s company that’s making the food or serving it to you. Instead the ‘concept’ gets picked up by one of the big airport retailers like Delaware North or OTG.

You may be surprised by how much money these companies will pay a chef to write recipes for food that you’ll order by iPad.

Continue Reading »