Virgin America offers padded leather recliner chairs in first class with foot rests and 55 inches seat back to seat back. That’s incredibly generous for most domestic routes. American is shrinking their first class from a ‘generous’ 38 inches for their new domestic standard product.
However it’s not competitive on premium cross country routes where American, Delta, United, and jetBlue all offer flat beds in business class.
The biggest aviation market in the world – by far – is the U.S., based on the number of departing seats. So this isn’t just domestic flights, it’s domestic flights plus outbound international flights as well. Here are the top 10.
The EU as a whole is roughly comparable to the Chinese market. The UK as a whole is the biggest aviation market in Europe, though their former colony India is a bigger market still.
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.
I think we may have just found the worst airline passenger ever who is going about her business oblivious to the concerns of others in the cabin. Every day passengers prop their bare feet up on the bulkhead. That’s bad enough. But it’s nothing in comparison.
This woman decided to dry her underwear using the airplane vent above her seat. She really gets ’em up in there, too. Now I know why some airlines don’t offer individual air vents.
Last year flight attendant in my Facebook feed shared a story about a man taking such a long time in the lavatory that another passenger expressed concern and eventually the crew started to suspect a medical emergency. After much knocking he came out, iPad in hand. He went in there to watch a movie. No, they didn’t confirm what kind of movie.
But what happens when the passenger comes out of the lavatory, but leaves their device inside?
Passengers protest an American Airlines 15 hour delay in Miami chanting a demand for hotel rooms in Spanish.
The lesson here is simple — and it isn’t specific to American Airlines, the same situations arise with any airline — book your flights with a premium credit card that comes with trip delay coverage. Get your own room and send the bill to your credit card company.
Nigerian carrier Dana Air is blaming passengers for an emergency exit door falling off one of its planes during landing.
The incident occurred on one of the airline’s five peak daily MD83 departures last Wednesday from Lagos to Abuja, Nigeria. Here’s video from inside the cabin where the door went missing.
One of my hotel pet peeves is late check out where the property still keys me for a noon check-out. That’s what I thought happened at first at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. But it turned out to be far more complicated.
A recent study found that airline check-in kiosks are the least hygienic part of the airport.
So I decided to find out about each airline’s cleaning regimen for kiosks. Or lack of cleaning regimen.
“You can always go around / If it don’t look right comin’ down.”
They say any landing you walk away from is a good landing. Unfortunately the last frame of the video is totally tasteless in my opinion, and ruins otherwise comedic genius (the Paris Air Show crash did not end well).
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 »
