I broke the news yesterday that American Airlines would announce Dallas – Brisbane service. They are out with this and other new and restored routes this morning.
Uber’s introduction of tipping, initially perceived as beneficial, actually leads to reduced driver wages and deteriorating service quality.
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.
Bilt Rewards runs bigger points transfer bonuses than any other program. But they last only a day – when they come around, it’s for the first of the month, “Rent Day,” since Bilt makes rent more rewarding.
American Airlines teased that they’ll be making an announcement of new routes on Thursday. In their video you can see, for instance, New York and Cherry Blossoms. This is obviously the new New York JFK – Tokyo Haneda flight that was approved by the Department of Transportation.
I’m hearing that American Airlines will be announcing Dallas – Fort Worth to Brisbane tomorrow.
Some guests head down to the front desk and complain about their hotel stay, every single time. A former Hyatt and Hilton employee talks about tracking a customer’s complaint history, the compensations they received, and notes about the guest. The hotel knows who’s a serial complainer, just doing it for the discounts, free breakfast or points. One guest wanted free champagne every day.
American’s plans mean squeezing the cabin for extra inches to stick another row of seats into an aircraft that’s already densely configured. There are only 3 rows at the front of the plane, for instance, that are considered ‘Main Cabin Extra’ extra legroom seats.
The longest American Airlines flight became a biohazard disaster on Monday when lavatories began overflowing with sewage, pouring out into the cabin.
American Airlines flight 293 from Delhi to New York JFK kept flying this way for “10+ hours” of the 17-hour flight after “4 lavatories flooded with sewage.” It appears that crew used Casper blankets to cover up the mess in the aisle. Video shows the refugee camp that the cabin had become, and a photo shows a lavatory sink filled with poo water.
American Airlines is planning to retrofit its Airbus A319 fleet to include more first-class seats, enhancing the premium seating options available to passengers – but, it appears, only on those planes that still have seat back entertainment screens. They’ll be taking those out.
The oneworld alliance has opened up its first ‘alliance lounge’ at Seoul Incheon airport. There’s been a tremendous amount of fanfare for this week and a half old space. But there are teething pains, because the lounge is improperly denying access to customers with eligible oneworld status, even who are flying business class.
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 »
