A toy dog was spotted walking the buffet line inside Delta’s brand-new Sky Club in Salt Lake City, even though airline policy requires pets to remain inside carriers at all times. Utah’s food code is even stricter: live animals are prohibited in food establishments. Yet staff made no inquiry about service-animal status and allowed the dog to roam directly in front of the hot buffet.
Some hotel guests are learning that even towels aren’t safe from surveillance. RFID chips are now embedded in linens to track inventory — and one hotel warns guests they could face fines of up to $17,000 for taking them.
Some Delta flyers say Sky Club agents will call down to baggage services and have checked bags pulled from the carousel so they can skip baggage claim and relax in the lounge instead. It’s an unofficial courtesy, not a published perk — but frequent travelers report it works consistently at many airports.
Marriott’s newest brand, City Express, gives old hotels a second life — two shades of gray, a yellow stripe, and a new sign. Here’s how the company is re-branding entire properties with little more than paint, signage, and breakfast.
Southwest will end its wheelchair-boarding advantage on January 26 when assigned seating takes effect. That change removes the incentive to preboard for early seat selection, but it doesn’t touch the real reason unneeded wheelchair requests have exploded across airlines.
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Los Angeles World Airports has approved $1.5 billion for a new 4.4-mile road into LAX — a per-mile price tag that’s several times higher than what similar highway or airport projects typically cost. The comparison with other U.S. airports makes one thing clear: this isn’t remotely normal.
Travelers at New York’s LaGuardia Airport spotted a tip box sitting on a TSA checkpoint table — something federal employees are strictly prohibited from soliciting or accepting. Cash tips violate federal ethics rules, TSA’s own code of conduct, and even criminal statutes governing gifts to government workers, making the setup flatly illegal.
More people are being kicked out of Global Entry than approved, and nearly 40% of those who challenge the decision get reinstated. DHS often won’t disclose the reason for a revocation, leaving travelers to appeal blind — and the high reversal rate suggests many removals never should have happened in the first place.
Senator Elizabeth Warren argues that rising premium-cabin travel shows growing inequality, but the data tells a very different story. Airlines have expanded premium seating and cut upgrade prices, making those products more accessible than ever—even as Warren herself regularly flies on private jets.
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 »
