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.
If you sign up for Global Entry now, you may not get it this year because there may not be any appointments when you want to go.
Until now I’ve suggested 3 strategies to deal with this. Now there’s a fourth.
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.
The story of Thursday’s Delta flight DL129 from Seattle – Beijing flight that had to turn around is finally coming out. We knew there was an unruly passenger in business class. Now we know who it was — and just how insane his actions were.
Twenty three year old Joseph Hudek IV was sitting in Delta business class, seat 1D, went for the exit door and tried to open it about an hour after takeoff. Flight attendants tried to stop him. Then other passengers got involved in the altercation.
Hip hop group Migos says they were kicked off Delta flight DL1532 from Atlanta to Des Moines on Friday because racism, while Delta explains they “repeatedly refused to follow crew member instructions to buckle their seatbelts and stow carry-on items in the overhead bins.”
United CEO Oscar Munoz originally issued a statement apologizing that passengers were inconvenienced and claiming that Dr. Dao had been belligerent. He since backtracked on that claim and publicly apologized. But he has never called Dr. Dao.
Dr. Dao actually says that he “would fly with United again” because of the changes to overbooking policies that airlines have made since his incident.
Comedian Faizon Love received a 180 day suspended sentence and a job working for United Airlines after he beat an airport worker in the Columbus, Ohio airport in March.
Thank goodness the U.S. has backtracked on the electronics ban.
As a lithium ion battery fire on a JetBlue flight in May reminds us, lithium ion batteries can be dangerous. When they catch fire in the cabin there are procedures to put them out. When they catch fire in the cargo hold of a plane, they can burn out of control.
A second hand report relays that two officers boarded the flight and instructed a flight attendant to have everyone remain seated.
Officers then, apparently, instructed a male flight attendant to “get his bag” and then proceeded to handcuff him and “walk him off the plane.”
Either Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar are a threat to Delta’s business or they aren’t. If it’s even close to the existential threat that Delta executives claim, that should be priced into the the market’s valuation of their future prospects. If it doesn’t matter, then the controversy is a tempest in a teapot.
At the very least, critics of the Gulf carriers have to explain why the stock market doesn’t appear to see validity in their position.
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 »
