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.
Unionized flight attendants — and flight attendants at airlines whose procedures mirror union work rules — get to work the most desirable trips based on seniority. Senior flight attendants at large international airlines can jet away to Sydney, to Buenos Aires, to Paris while more junior flight attendants overnight in Des Moines.
American Airlines flight attendants have created a secondary market renting out their seniority. They sell prime trip assignments to junior flight attendants, reportedly on average for $200 per trip.
Two weeks ago a Southwest Airlines flight from New York LaGuardia to Dallas Love Field made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after experiencing an uncontained engine failure.
The occurrence aircraft, N772SW, flew today from Philadelphia to Paine Field in Everett, Washington as SWA8700.
Etihad’s CEO says they plan to remain a global player rather than shrinking to become a premium boutique airline, even as he spurs further speculation about a merger or other close cooperation deal with UAE rival Emirates which is based just over an hour away.
Newark is going to open in a few weeks’ time and Houston will open over the summer. The Los Angeles Polaris lounge is supposed to open later this year. So if they stick to that schedule United should have 5 Polaris lounges open by the end of 2018.
However we’re not going to see any more in 2019. The next batch won’t open until 2020, which considering these were announced nearly two years ago seems insane.
Whether it’s Dan Eleff spending a million Starpoints to throw out the first pitch in game 7 of the World Series where his hometown Indians are playing or Pizza in Motion using points so his wife could have tennis lessons from Andre Agassi there are things you can do – worthwhile things – with points that may be better for you than just travel.
And Ed Pizzarello shares a video of Cliff Yow announcing an NFL draft pick.
Singapore Airlines offers very good award availability to its own members, but not very good availability to partners. I’ve written about excellent first class award space Los Angeles – Tokyo and great business class space Houston – Manchester.
If you want to fly long haul premium cabin awards with Singapore, you need to use Singapore’s own miles. Chase, American Express, and Citi points all transfer to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.
One of the big mistakes people make booking awards is to assume that when you want to travel you go to your frequent flyer program’s website and enter where you’re flying from, where you’re going to, and you’ll be presented with your options.
If you go to the American Airlines website and say you want to go to Bangkok there will be no availability, ever. And that’s not because there’s no availability, although that’s what most people assume it means.
Briggs & Riley is one of the better luggage brands, I have two of their bags. They have a lifetime warranty, and stand behind it the way that Tumi used to years ago.
The Briggs & Riley Torq Hardside 29″ 4 Wheel Spinner is 40% off right now at Amazon, so $569 $339. It’s available in three colors at this price.
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.
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 »
