You may be familiar with — and even outraged by — the famous lawsuit against McDonald’s by Stella Liebeck who was burned by hot coffee.
The jury’s $2.7 million award has long been a poster child for tort reform (the judge actually reduced her award to $480,000).
We now have a new McDoanld’s case from the skies. A 15 year old flying Los Angeles – Sydney is suing Virgin Australia after getting burned by hot coffee.
Chase extended its British Airways partnership in May 2015 and a month later American Express announced you’d no longer be able to transfer Membership Rewards points 1:1 into British Airways come that fall. Presumably the British Airways-Chase deal precluded other card products from having 1:1 earning with BA.
With Bose out with the new QC 35 noise cancelling headphones the price of QC20s dropped from $299 to $249. And Amazon has them further reduced to $199. That’s a phenomenal deal on Bose noise cancelling headphones, which I don’t travel without.
Just in time for the holidays, you can have free checked bags on American Airlines. You can have Priority Boarding, too, which means you’ll get on the plane early enough that there’s still overhead bin space available. And forget long check-in lines, if you have to check in with a person rather than online or at a kiosk you get to use Priority Check-in.
These are benefits of “oneworld ruby” status, the entry-level status of American’s oneworld partners.
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.
When former US Airways President Scott Kirby left as President of American Airlines to become President of United American sent out their press release about elevating Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom to President and explained that Scott Kirby was leaving immediately. It didn’t mention anything about United, and it didn’t say anything about spending more time with his family.
In a long piece from Fortune on Oscar Munoz’s tenure at United we…get this explanation about Scott Kirby’s move from American to United:
Delta is raising the price of SkyClub memberships next year.
Just like when they raised prices three years ago the rationale is offered that higher prices allow them to continue to invest in the clubs. But it’s strange then that they’d be reducing the mileage price at the same time then. And it’s certainly not necessary to raise the price in order to improve the experience. Most airlines in the world don’t charge memberships for lounge access at all.
Trip delay coverage that comes with many premium credit cards can save you and your family up to $500 this holiday season if things go wrong during your travels. But it requires followup.
Although DOT wasn’t ready a year ago to approve an expanded joint venture between American and Qantas and it was possible they might ask for certain concessions in exchange for doing so (they’re asking for slots from Delta and Aeromexico at New York JFK and Mexico City in exchange for approving theirs) history suggested that American and Qantas would be able to move forward.
However — although Australia and New Zealand authorities already signed off a year ago and although DOT allowed a joint venture between US carrier Delta and Australia’s Virgin Australia — the US Department of Transportation is blocking the expanded cooperation between American and Qantas
Spirit offers perhaps the worst airline experience in America. But Spirit will let you pay to bring a full size carry-on bag onboard.
United’s Basic Economy fares won’t let you bring a rollaboard onto the plane (unless you have MileagePlus elite status, a United co-brand credit card, or are a Star Alliance Gold member). You have to check the bag (and wait for it, and maybe lose it) and pay for the privilege of doing so.
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 »
