Upside is the new travel booking site from Priceline founder Jay Walker. It’s finally launched with its full functionality. They raised $50 million on a $200 million valuation even before they were fully operational. Because a new idea on how to deliver value to consumers from the guy who created Name Your Own Price bidding is a big deal in the travel world.
It’s also a widely misunderstood site.
Two Aer Lingus employees and a potential illegal immigrant have been arrested as Irish authorities broke up an illegal immigrant smuggling operation at the Dublin airport.
The employees would use catering trucks to move inbound passengers directly from aircraft to a car park outside the airport facility, bypassing immigration. This operation has been ongoing for several years and authorities believe at least 500 people have managed to skip customs and border formalities using this Aer Lingus Catering VIP Arrivals service.
If you ask the top leadership at American what airline they admire most, it’s Delta. Now that former American Airlines President Scott Kirby has taken the President job at United, the same can probably be said for United.
But they misunderstand the lessons of Delta, and blindly copy Delta moves assuming that if Delta does something — since they run the more profitable, better operation — it must be both right and best for their airline.
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.
While United, American, and Delta have complained about growth of the Mideast carriers, who offer one-stop service to smaller cities in India, Pakistan and surrounding areas that US carriers do not serve (and that in some cases even their European partners do not serve) some have suspected the real concern is fifth freedom routes — to date, only Emirates has flown transatlantic, offering New York JFK – Milan.
This flight then represents something of a watershed. It will no longer be just one transatlantic flight offered by a Gulf carrier.
United’s computers are down and they’ve placed a ground stop on flights. Hopefully things will be rebooted and working quickly, there aren’t a whole lot of flights left tonight and crews could start to time out.
So far United has only informed the FAA of ground stop until 8pm Eastern.
Delta Platinum members get one ‘choice benefit’ and Diamonds get two.
A Diamond member might choose 4 confirmed international upgrades valid on any fare, a benefit the airline introduced three years ago.
Indeed, now that American Airlines has reduced the number of confirmed international upgrades given upon reaching top tier to 4 and tightened up availability Delta is even with American offering international upgrades to top elites.
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.
It’s one thing to see sub-$400 transatlantic roundtrips in Winter, as great as that is, but we’re now starting to see fares like this for summer which is peak time to visit Europe and when you normally see the cost of European coach airfares skyrocket. What could be better than Paris in summer for less than $350?
Star Alliance member and United partner EgyptAir is offering business class roundtrips between Mumbai and New York for just $1108.
The base fare is just $183 in each direction — business class fares don’t get much cheaper than this.
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 »
