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.
Malaysia’s recently ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak cannot leave the country while he faces corruption charges. He took his family on holiday to Langkawi and apparently took quite a lot of baggage on the trip.
He’s a Platinum member of the Malaysia Airlines Enrich status. One imagines whether he meets the criteria or not that he’d have this status. And his Platinum appears to come with a very special perk. His reservation shows that he checked 535kg of luggage and had the 17,000 Malaysia Ringgit excess baggage fee waived.
American Airlines announced last month that they’re ending their Chicago – Beijing flight in October.
American’s Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja told employees in Chicago last week at a question and answer session that Chicago flights to Asia are mostly connecting traffic, that they rely on connections from cities with low fares and often their own non-stop flights to the same destinations, and that higher fuel costs make it even harder to sustain flights than before.
Yesterday a group of teenagers – who had entered the country on their own – were being escorted without parents onboard an American Airlines flight from McAllen, Texas to Dallas and onward to New York LaGuardia.
American Airlines is predicting that British Airways will fly to more mid-sized US cities than they do today, and that American is going to increase the size of the planes they fly to London Heathrow.
However despite complaining that there aren’t enough premium seats flying Chicago – London, American currently plans to reduce the number of premium seats flying Chicago – London (and to reduce the number of premium seats on two major aircraft types they fly).
Delta listed a job for a sales associate on LinkedIn whose role would be to “develop relationships and ties in the Austin market with key community and industry organizations to support Delta’s Focus City initiative.”
Earlier today I wrote about flight attendants expressing concern over transporting kids who were being separated from their families as they’re split up under immigration laws. Both American Airlines and United have expressed solidarity with their crew, which isn’t surprising.
The Department of Homeland Security has come out swinging against both airlines.
AAdvantage President Bridget Blaise-Shamai appeared on the latest American Airlines employee podcast Tell Me Why which is also uploaded on several public podcast hosting sites.
She commented on Platinum Pro and ConciergeKey elite status changes, efforts to improve award availability, the future of upgrades into and awards for premium economy, and inflight credit card pitches.
There’s been a lot of chatter and possibly ill-informed speculation amongst Ameircan Airlines flight attendants about the number of unaccompanied minors being up on their US-Mexico flights.
There’s been some disagreement over whether this is the result of the federal government deporting children on American Airlines flights, or parents proactively sending their children out of the country out of fear they might be captured and held in separation from their families.
When Oscar Munoz took over from disgraced United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek the airline rolled out modest customer experience improvements as part of an overall attempt to change the narrative of the airline: Illy coffee and stroopwafels as complimentary snacks in coach.
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 »
