Struggling Pakistan International Airlines had a tragedy today with flight PK611 from Chitral to Islamabad operated by an ATR 42 declaring an emergency with left engine problems. Radar and radio contact was lost.
Reports on the ground near Abbottabad (north of Islamabad, where Osama bin Laden was found) were of sounds of a crash. All 42 passengers and 5 crew are presumed lost.
A woman battling breast cancer had a really unfortunate experience with the TSA in Los Angeles last night.
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.
Alaska Airlines won the frenzied bidding war to acquire Virgin America. And now they’ve reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to allow the merger to go forward.
We’ll learn the specifics soon as to what the ‘limited’ or ‘substantial reduction’ in American Airlines codesharing involves. However these are the likely changes we’ll see.
Don’t worry about the bottom-line effects on Chase from all of these signup bonuses, however: “JPMorgan is expected to post about $5 billion in profit this quarter.”
The federal government operates Boeing 747-200s as Air Force One. The first one was delivered in 1990. The 747-200 itself (in military configuration, a VC-25) was first put into service in 1971.
Last year they entered into a contract with Boeing for two new custom 747-8s to become the new Air Force One.
Donald Trump, who may never get to fly in the new planes, criticized the deal this morning on Twitter.
Back in October I wrote about earning 52 Hilton HHonors points per dollar spent on stays through the end of year by combining several opportunities. And that was before the addition of a 5000 point Visa bonus.
Southwest Airlines flight WN556 was scheduled to fly Philadelphia – Orlando on Sunday however a woman went into labor during the short flight and they diverted to Charleston.
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]n any given incident it’s difficult for the passenger to know what’s going on or have all of the available data — especially when gate agents aren’t forthcoming with information.
In the case of a Los Angeles – London flight this weekend where several business class seats were left empty with customers on the waitlist, American tells me that the issue with the Boeing 777-200 was “weight and balance… not the gate agents skipping over upgrades.”
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 »
