Like some other major US airlines, Southwest Airlines will sell you the elite qualifying points needed to earn elite status. Their offer to buy status ends Saturday.
A-List is normally earned after 25 flights or 35,000 points. They’ll sell you up to 15,000 points towards this goal.
The Airbus A380 is popular with customers for its spaciousness, although airlines are just now starting to really squeeze passengers into it like never before. However it’s never been popular with very many airlines.
The plane may have cost $25 billion just to develop, but they’ve only delivered 217 of them — about half to Emirates. Emirates has a few dozen more on order was on the verge of buying more at the Dubai Air Show but backed out over Airbus’ unwilling to place guarantees on the program and the future of the planes and an inability to get the deal they wanted on a new engine.
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 passenger on the plane disputes the conventional reporting about two professional basketball players being kicked off an American Airlines flight for stealing blankets. Are ESPN, the AP, Dallas Morning News and the rest of the media reporting a story all 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.
Last night I wrote that supermodel Chrissy Teigen was live tweeting an aviation incident where ANA flight NH175 from Los Angeles to Tokyo was turning around midflight because there was a passenger onboard who wasn’t supposed to be on the plane.
I find “a passenger boarded the wrong flight” a strange explanation, or rather there’s more to the story about the failures that led this passenger to be onboard and cause the flight to turn around several hours after departure.
Supermodel Chrissy Teigen was onboard ANA flight NH175 from Los Angeles to Tokyo and she’s reported live that the flight is turning back to Los Angeles because they discovered a passenger on the aircraft who isn’t supposed to be onboard.
One flight attendantwas convinced passengers on AA3756, an Embraer ERJ-175 from Dallas Fort-Worth to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had taken blankets from first class.
The two passengers, NBA minor league players, were kicked off the flight because “the flight attendant reportedly felt threatened and refused to fly with the pair on board.”
I’ve written a few times recently that American has seemed to offer better award availability lately. It’s not great, but better than the almost no availability that has reigned for some time. We were promised that in September and goodness knows I hope what we’re seeing now isn’t all there is.
However there’s something important to understand about much of what American has done. They’re offering award space that you can handle to your advantage if you know what you’re doing.
This Starwood Platinum member asked for an upgrade and was surprised as check-out to find a $300 per night ‘upgrade fee’ on their bill.
When you’re given an upgrade, with no money discussed, do you assume it’s free? Should you proactively have to ask, or is it the hotel’s responsibility to mention a price if they do want to charge more for an upgrade?
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 »
