New Travel Scam: Stealing From Passenger Bags in the Overhead

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 19 2018

Don’t put your most important items such as money and passports in the overhead bin if you can avoid it. Not every seat allows bags at your feet, but computers should go there at least during flight and check that everything is in place immediately once it’s been out of your sight.

TSA screeners steal from passengers at checkpoints. Baggage handlers steal from checked bags. oneworld’s head of finance allegedly stole $2.2 million. And a former Miss USA stole noise cancelling headphones. So why not passengers stealing from each others’ carry on bags?

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Marriott-Starwood Merger Day: Quit Gnashing Teeth

by Gary Leff

hotel lobby
Aug 18 2018

Marriott’s new loyalty program has launched, but as of this writing they’re still working through the IT. They told us to expect things to be down throughout Saturday. If things work on Sunday I’ll be impressed.

Compared to what might have happened I still think that the new Marriott program is about the best we could possibly have hoped for or expected. It’s stapling some version of the Starwood elite program onto some version of the Marriott redemption program (‘the best of both worlds’) along with some devaluation of each.

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American Airlines Flight Attendants Unhappy With New Discipline System. That Won’t Be Good for Service

by Gary Leff

back airplane tv
Aug 18 2018

We’re just over a month away from when American Airlines will cut over to a single flight attendant scheduling system. They’ll no longer have to keep former US Airways crews separate from legacy American crews. And this will allow the airline to schedule their planes more efficiently — driven more by passenger demand than contractual obligations to different flight attendant groups.

At the same time they’re imposing a new discipline system on flight attendants to ensure they show up for work.

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Southwest Introducing Dynamic Pricing for Early Bird Check-in: Here’s Your Strategy

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Aug 18 2018

Southwest Airlines is apparently going to vary the price of Early Bird check-in by route instead of charging a flat $15. Some routes will go up to $25 starting August 29th, and this will be based on two things: the length of the route (so how much getting a more desirable seat is likely to matter to you) and demand for Early Bird Check-in on the route (how many people are already buying it).

This isn’t as big a deal as it seems, especially if you know how to play Southwest Airlines boarding strategically.

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