A Taiwanese captain allegedly punched his Malaysian first officer multiple times during taxi out of LAX on an EVA Air flight to Taipei after a dispute over taxi speed. The first officer reportedly issued repeated “Speed” callouts and applied the brakes when the captain didn’t slow, after which the altercation turned physical—prompting an internal investigation and scrutiny from Taiwan’s aviation regulator.
An 80-year-old man pushed his wife through Tenerife South Airport in a wheelchair until staff at the security checkpoint noticed she was unresponsive and unusually cold. Medical assistance was called, she was confirmed dead of natural causes, and authorities activated the airport’s protocol for discovery of a body—while the husband was questioned and later released.
A federal judge blocked DHS from trying—again—to void the TSA’s union contract, ruling the agency can’t sidestep a prior injunction by issuing a “new” justification for the same outcome. The decision keeps the 2024 collective bargaining agreement in force and preserves workers’ grievance and arbitration rights while the case continues.
Delta’s domestic “First Class” is supposed to buy you breathing room — until it doesn’t. On a Delta flight from San Antonio to Los Angeles, a tall passenger’s knees made it physically impossible for the seat in front to recline, sparking a mid-cabin standoff over a feature the airline sells as part of the upgrade. A flight attendant ended the debate with an honest apology, “I can’t make his legs smaller.”
Hyatt is back with a rare World of Hyatt Credit Card bonus that can earn five Category 1–4 free nights—and the spend required to unlock all five also puts you in position to earn a sixth Category 1–4 night. If you can use the certificates well (and before they expire), this is the most compelling Hyatt card offer we’ve seen in a long time.
Chicago is exploring selling sponsorships and naming rights across O’Hare and Midway—everything from terminals and people-mover stations down to restrooms, trash cans, and pet relief areas. A new RFI asks brands what they’d pay for and how they’d activate it, as the city looks for ways to offset major expansion costs—while keeping the O’Hare and Midway names themselves off the table.
Trump has now endorsed the Durbin-Marshall swipe fee bill, pitching it as “competition” and consumer relief. In reality it shifts value from cardholders to retailers—cutting rewards, pushing issuers toward higher fees elsewhere, and shrinking credit availability—without any reason to expect lower prices.
An Air Canada flight out of Toronto started taxiing when passengers say they heard someone yelling from the cargo hold. The aircraft returned to the gate, the worker was freed, and the airline says no one was hurt. Now Air Canada is investigating how the doors were closed with a crew member still inside.
Vasu Raja is headed to United to work on monetizing passengers through inflight advertising, but that’s not the part of this story most people are getting wrong. The real mistake is the narrative about his tenure at American: he became the face of a broader strategy signed off at the top, and American’s ongoing struggles long outlasted— and outgrew —the distribution fight he was blamed for.
News and notes from around the interweb: MileagePlus members, be afraid. ($$) Veteran of Apple Card (all branding, very little consumer value) and… Delta. Richard Nunn, a former Comcast executive hired in May 2023 as CEO of the loyalty platform and to launch Kinective Media, is leaving. So is Luc Bondar, the vice president of loyalty, who has run MileagePlus day-to-day for nearly 10 years. United has made a splashy permanent hire to replace Nunn and Bondar, naming Jarad Fisher as its new vice president for loyalty and president of MileagePlus. Fisher helped build Apple’s credit card from 2015 to 2020, and earlier in his career, he worked in loyalty at Delta. I flew American Airlines on four different days in the eight days following their launch of free wifi, and I finally got an…
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 »
