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.
Avoid pickups at arrivals altogether especially in the evening and get picked up at departures instead. There are few evening departures from Austin, so the upstairs departures level is mostly empty.
And this is permitted, too. Electronic signs beneath the names of airline names in front of the terminal read “DROP OFF PICKUP ONLY.” The airport officially encourages upstairs pickups! I’ve also never had an Uber driver refuse an upstairs pickup. You have to specify a pickup location at arrivals, but I then immediately send a pickup message asking for upstairs pickup. The driver almost always thanks me (and this is probably why my Uber rating has climbed to nearly 4.9).
Via Air moved from public charter operations to running commercial Essential Air Service subsidized flights out of Beckley and Parkersburg, West Virginia to Charlotte in 2014. They also ran unsubsidized flights from Beckley and Parkersburg to St. Augustine, Florida.
The Florida-based carrier has since expanded operations and has a fleet of 6 fifty seat Embraer ERJ-145s and 4 thirty seat EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops.
Earlier this year I wrote about how it often looks like gate agents process upgrades incorrectly, but there are perfectly innocent explanations that customers usually don’t see.
At the same time, things sometimes do appear to be done wrong.
At the end of June American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees, “We’re not going through the whole fleet and adding a bunch of seats to airplanes or taking out larger bathrooms and putting in smaller ones.”
Of course that isn’t true.
oint ventures seek anti-trust immunity to allow airlines to work together on schedules and pricing, and to split up the revenue they earn together on designated routes.
Proponents argue that they’re a second-best workaround to limits on foreign ownership of airlines. However joint ventures remove competitors from the field. Foreign ownership could increase competition, bringing more capital, while these joint ventures reduce competitors.
Delta and United rescinded their group discount offer for NRA members. United is based in Chicago and everyone expects gun violence there. Delta took a lot of heat for their position and tried to walk it back claiming they weren’t really taking a position on the issue.
The state legislature dropped an attempt to repeat the jet fuel tax that would have been a big subsidy for Delta. This was signaling to GOP primary voters.
Back in April I wrote about hidden lounges: airport clubs your membership gets you into but that your airline doesn’t tell you about.
The perfect example of this is The Club at Bluegrass in the Lexington, Kentucky airport can be accessed by any Admirals Club member, United Club member, or Delta Skyclub member.
It turns out there’s an airport lounge that grants access to pretty much everyone’s elites.
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.
Korean Air has eliminated the ability to put award tickets on hold, with or without points in your account. This applies to awards for Korean Air travel (which could generally be held a month, and used to be able to be held nearly indefinitely) as well as to partner awards (which could be held ~ 5 days).
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 »
