Air travel remains safe, both in the US and in Europe, despite recent high profile incidents in Brussels and Istanbul. Nonetheless we do need to be vigilant and adapt to changing threats.
Flying is still safe – much safer than driving – even factoring in what’s so shocking to watch. While there remain risks, we’re fortunate not to have had a successful plot in the US since 9/11. Europe is closer and easier.
Expedia’s New Zealand website is offering better deals than other sites right now. That’s the Expedia site that issues tickets in New Zealand, pricing them in New Zealand dollars. I love Expedia’s local country sites because sometimes there are better fares that can only be sold inside a country and that’s a convenient way to buy those tickets.
These fares are available between Washington DC or New York and Johannesburg on South African Airways, and also available with continuing service elsewhere in South Africa.
19 year Hannah Cohen has traveled from Chattanooga to Memphis for the past 17 years to seek treatment at St. Jude’s hospital for her brain tumor. She was “celebrating the end of her treatment” and on her way back home.
This woman is “partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed, and easily confused” and so when she alarmed at the TSA checkpoint at the Memphis airport. She didn’t understand what the agency wanted to do to her.
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.
JetBlue has a very exciting promotion running, generating tons of buzz going after customers with points in a Virgin America account.
They will match whatever balance is in your Virgin America Elevate account by July 4 (up to 50,001 points but and in some cases matched better than 1:1) if you register and take a single roundtrip with them by August 31.
While I follow airline products around the world I’m much closer to the changes and business operations of US airlines than European ones.
So sometimes developments creep up on my. So let me share some surpising things that I learned perusing data this week.
One of the ways Etihad exercises this control is by purchasing controlling stakes in an airline’s frequent flyer program, something they’ve done with airberlin and Jet Airways. While foreign ownership restrictions limit equity in an airline, they do not generally limit ownership of an airline frequent flyer program.
Etihad purchased a majority stake in the Jet Airways JetPrivilege program and a 70% stake in airberlin’s Topbonus program.
Priceline founder Jay Walker is launching a new travel booking site in September. The focus is business travel for small and mid-size companies, and the goal is to save the company money while offering gift cards to employees.
Signup is quick and free. And people who sign up before the site launches have two big advantages.
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.
Bangkok is city where it’s difficult for me to pick hotels. Most everything is above average. Even the Holiday Inn Bangkok, at Gaysorn Plaza, is attached to the Intercontinental and practically the same hotel.
On the other hand there are very few properties that are so good they’re clearly better than all the others. It’s not a city where I stick to Hyatt, either, because while the Grand Hyatt Erawan is fine I don’t find it special.
The St. Regis was priced extremely reasonably for my dates and although the hotel is known for being great with suite upgrades, I decided not to just chance it or use a Suite Night Award but to pay for the suite. Long odds, as reported by others, but I hoped for a further upgrade.
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 »
