British Family Had to Sit on the Floor For Their 900 Mile Flight

by Gary Leff

flight attendants
Jan 14 2019

Back in 2012 Ryanair floated the idea of ‘standing seats’ to pack more passengers in and lower costs. And Airbus has a patent for ‘double decker’ seating. But neither idea is supposed to be real or is approved for flying — anywhere.

That was little comfort to the family of three who had paid about $1700 to fly from Mahon in Spain to Birmingham in the UK on TUI airlines. They were assigned seats 41 D, E and F but because of an aircraft swap there were no seats like that.

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$49 Flights to Europe (Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, London) from 4 US Cities

by Gary Leff

wow plane
Jan 14 2019

Airline investor Indigo Partners threw Wow Air a lifeline and Wow Air is partying with $49 flights to Europe.

From BWI I see January 21 through March 11 available to Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, and Iceland. There are similar offerings from Newark, Detroit, and Boston. This sale ends January 18 but limited inventory will sell out faster than that.

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Inside United’s Secretive ‘Global Services’ Status — and the Level Even Beyond That

by Gary Leff

Jan 13 2019

United, like many airlines, has long had special programs for high revenue customers. Their primary offering is Global Services. It was a relaunch of the airline’s old VIP program.

The status is invitation only, except that United 4 million milers are granted lifetime Global Services status. In general flying over 100,000 miles and spending at least 30 cents per mile on United tickets is required. The benefits you receive as a Global Services member are impressive.

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The Secret to Delta’s Sky Club Thai Chicken and Rice Soup

by Gary Leff

campbells thai soup
Jan 13 2019

Often the best inflight meals are soups. That’s something tough to mess up in a galley. They can be heavily seasoned to counteract the taste bud-dulling affects of cabin pressurization, and they just need to be heated.

Soups work well in club lounges as well. You don’t have to rely on actual skills from Sodexho or other outsourced employees to prepare a good dish, and they sit well too.

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Leaked United Airlines Confidential Corporate Sales Stats (Someone’s in Deep Trouble)

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Jan 13 2019

Apple is by far United’s biggest corporate account. They spend $150 million with the airline. Focusing on California-specific accounts the biggest are Facebook, Roche, and Google which spend ‘over $34 million’ and then Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, Cisco, Oracle and Applied Materials in the $12 million to $17 million range.

Apple’s spending on San Francisco – Shanghai though is shocking, even accounting for all of the manufacturing done in China — one quarter of total company spend, 50 business class seats a day. That’s presumably 25 business seats in each direction.

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