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.
Ryanair is killing its new $91-a-year “Prime” loyalty program after just eight months, blaming the shutdown on being “too generous” to 55,000 subscribers. The numbers tell a different story: weak demand, bad unit economics, and a bundle that undercut the ancillaries Ryanair depends on for profit.
A JetBlue flight attendant turned the Thanksgiving bathroom line into something unexpected: a flying gratitude wall made of passenger napkins. Travelers wrote what they were thankful for – family, survival, second chances – and the galley filled up with handwritten notes, echoing earlier “Words From A Window Seat”-style acts of in-flight kindness.
Aviation insiders say an airworthiness directive may soon require software updates across the Airbus A320 fleet after investigators linked a JetBlue incident—where the aircraft entered a sudden uncommanded descent—to a faulty ELAC computer. Any grounding is expected to be short and staggered, with airlines updating the systems plane-by-plane to avoid major disruption.
Marriott’s Japanese-language terms and customer service agents are indicating a shift to a less generous late checkout policy, with Platinum elites guaranteed only 2 p.m. instead of the long-promised 4 p.m. While the English terms haven’t changed, the discrepancy appears to stem from a translation error — though it highlights how vulnerable the benefit is to future devaluation.
The head of the largest flight attendants union, Sara Nelson, says you should never press the flight attendant call button for a drink, and even tried to get the government to ban alcohol on planes which would reduce the amount of service her members would have to provide.
This is 100% wrong.
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.
Delta has removed the second barcode from its printed boarding passes, a change agents often describe as ‘ink-saving’ but which Delta says also improves compatibility with airport scanners. Both explanations are true — the legacy 1-D code caused read errors, and dropping it also cuts print costs at scale.
SNL’s “Thanksgiving Week Airport Parade” may be two years old, but its send-up of Thanksgiving air travel—Newark jokes, fake service animals, frazzled TSA agents, restless kids, and even a “crazy plane lady”—still feels uncomfortably accurate today. If you dread flying this week, the sketch is worth revisiting.
A longtime reader who owned a hotel decided to test something most properties assume never happens: what old key cards can still open long after checkout. Across Marriott, Hyatt, and Westin—at airport and city hotels alike—his months-old cards kept unlocking lounges, gyms, and even elevator access. The results say far more about how these systems are actually configured than hotels would ever admit.
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 »
