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.
Southwest Airlines doesn’t pre-assign seats. Once you board you can take any open seat. There’s no rule against saving seats for other passengers. And it’s perfectly acceptable to subtly discourage other passengers from sitting beside you, though if they want to take the empty seat next to you they can.
In this Hunger Games world of Southwest Airlines seat selection there’s basic game theory to defend and expand your turf.
A special IATA meeting was held in London to define a sandwich, and hear violations. The airline industry body declared that sandwiches had to be “cold… simple… unadorned… inexpensive” and had to “consist of a substantial and visible chunk of bread.” Moreover they could not contain anything “normally regarded as expensive or luxurious, such as smoked salmon, oysters, caviar, lobster, game, asparagus, pate de foie gras” nor could they feature “overgenerous or lavish helpings which affect the money value of the unit.”
On a flight Qingdao to Harbin, China on Saturday, a flight attendant had to physically secure the emergency exit door following a passenger’s attempt to open it as the aircraft prepared to depart. The crewmember had one hand on the plane’s roof and another on the emergency exit lever. Naturally, the passenger was drunk. The female flight attendant was observed gripping the emergency exit lever firmly while bracing herself against the cabin’s ceiling. This was necessary after a male passenger attempted to manipulate the exit door’s lever. A male flight attendant intervened, questioning the passenger “Sir, did you open this?”. The man ignored the questions at first, looking down at his cell phone, and then appearing confused. He began gesturing at the lever without initially verbally responding. The male flight attendant continued to press the…
Frontier Airlines, which is struggling financially (as is ultra low cost Spirit Airlines), is trying a number of new things. They’ve just announced an intra-Europe style business class offering that they call UpFront Plus seating.
United dropped change fees as a competitive response to Southwest. Kirby no longer believes are travel is a commodity – as he did throughout his career – having been shown it doesn’ thave to be by Delta. Boeing is headed back into his good graces. And United is working on their new business class.
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.
At 2 transferrable points per dollar, $65 million would translate to 130,000,000 points.
When he rented the car he “noticed a huge dent.” So he did what many advise and took a photo, and also pointed it out to the rental company staffer. “[H]e noted it.” Also what you’re supposed to do!
Yet a few weeks after the rental, he received an email claiming he damaged the vehicle, showing the dent that he’d documented.
The Detroit Metro Airport Marriott sees a lot of distressed passengers stuck overnight, like any airport hotel would. Often they’re without luggage. One reader shared a story of what interacting with this hotel is like, when needing a bit of help.
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 »
