An Air Canada Boeing 777 was struck by lightning as it departed Vancouver and continued to London’s Heathrow airport. It was inspected on arrival. Video of the strike happening is impressive!
Chase’s Washington Dulles airport lounge is now open. It’s been redesigned as a Chase Sapphire Lounge, in the old Etihad Airways lounge space, and still hosts Etihad premium passengers for their once daily flight as well.
During a holiday stay at the Venetian in Las Vegas, a visitor from California woke up during the night in pain. The hotel guest reported being stung by a scorpion directly on his testicles as he slept. He said it felt like “sharp glass or a knife” in his genital area. And there was a scorpion attached to his underwear.
There’s a lot of confusion over taxes and fees when flying from London, because there are so many of them. European and British airlines like British Airways add fuel surcharges or ‘carrier-imposed surcharges’ onto tickets. These are extra fees for no particular reason, that are quoted as part of the total price when buying a ticket for cash. They are extra fees collected on top of your miles when you redeem points, making them even worse.
While the Airbus A321XLR is still in the future – the aircraft hasn’t been certified yet, so Airbus can’t deliver any – American is beginning the process of switching its existing fleet of A321T planes into the standard, less luxurious configuration.
The onlooker flagged down a flight attendant, asking to at least be able to change seats. She “looked over at them, said it didn’t look like they were doing anything to her” and told him that he couldn’ be moved – that if it bothered him she should “just ignore them, it’s a short flight.”
That’s when he began filming. He showed the video to another flight attendant, who was shocked – not at the behavior of the passengers in congress – that he recorded them.
Delta Air Lines has moved to spending only as a metric for earning status. And they’re considering no longer awarding full credit for your spending, unless you buy more expensive fares. That’s one lesson of a new product survey they’re sending to frequent flyers that helps them sort through how much extra customers will pay to earn qualifying dollars.
Other ideas being tested include bringing back change fees unless customers buy up to a more expensive fare and return of fees for getting help from reservations, with free assistance via chat features only.
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 Spring United Airlines introduced wings with crew names and pronouns. These replaced separate nametags and crew wings. And the flight attendants union filed a grievance – not against the option to display pronouns, but because they say this jeopardized flight attendant safety.
Wells Fargo has entered the chat. They’ve announced themselves in travel rewards, and transferring bank points to airline miles and hotel points. They’ve launched a rich new travel credit card, and launched points transfers to airline and hotel loyalty programs for both this high-earner and existing cards.
The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Visa Card is a brand new product. It’s pretty compelling in its own right as a travel and dining card, but offers some great possibilities in combination with other Wells cards now that their branded portfolio of points cards all come with point transfers.
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 »
