United Airlines just announced Houston – Sydney service operated by a Boeing 787-9 starting January 18. This will be United’s second longest route after Los Angeles – Singapore which launches in October.
Last month I wrote about 30 Air India pilots testing positive in preflight alcohol tests over 3 years. That seemed like a lot.
I was surprised to learn that 132 pilots and 434 crew members have “regularly been ‘evading’” mandatory alcohol tests.
Marriott’s end of year promo is out. It’s called MegaBonus, because that seems to be the only promotion name Marriott can regularly remember. However it’s “the good kind” of MegaBonus, stay twice and earn a free night.
People have been complaining about expensive airfares to fly out of Florida. With everyone leaving because of the hurricane, there are few seats left. Last seats are generally priced at full fare. This isn’t airlines ‘raising prices because of the hurricane’ this is the standard way they sell tickets faced with unusually high demand.
Dr. David Dao was dragged off of a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville in April by Chicago airport police and bloodied — setting off a worldwide media storm and leading to changes in how US airlines handle overbooked flights.
We’re learning today that the Department of Transportation didn’t take any action following the incident. The government found that “an enforcement action against United wasn’t warranted.”
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 week Starwood launched a targeted offer with some members getting points for varying levels of stay activity and others getting double elite qualifying nights (and still others getting bupkus). You should see if you’re eligible for something.
At the time we didn’t know, though, what Starwood’s fourth quarter promotion would be. But now that’s out.
United is admitting is that they actually lost money because of Basic Economy. United revealed that the “incremental revenue from buy-up” was “more than offset by share loss” to airlines without a Basic Economy offering.
Last year American AAdvantage reduced the number of systemwide upgrades given to Executive Platinum members from 8 to 4. Don’t worry, fewer upgrade certificates didn’t make upgrades any easier to confirm. In fact they’ve even gotten tough to use domestically.
It’s still possible to earn more systemwide upgrades — even more than 8.
Because somehow Etihad’s problem is that they aren’t gouging members enough with fuel surcharges… as opposed to massively failed investments in foreign carriers like air berlin and Alitalia, and overexpansion on their own…
They’re letting members know about tinkering with the program coming up — changes to lounge access, mileage earning, and redemption prices — but they don’t let members know the actual award chart changes which is how you know they won’t be good.
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 »
