What Virgin America is Telling Employees About Their Merger With Alaska

by Gary Leff

Apr 06 2016

Virgin America’s CEO sent a note to employees about being bought out by Alaska Airlines for $2.6 billion.

Most Virgin America employees will keep their jobs for the foreseeable future. Alaska Airlines doesn’t serve many of the cities that Virgin does. Alaska doesn’t have enough flight attendants and pilots to maintain Virgin’s operation without Virgin’s employees. Alaska’s pilots generally aren’t currently rated on Airbus equipment. Alaska’s mechanics aren’t either. And the Airbus equipment stays, at least for awhile.

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Join Competitours – the ‘Amazing Race For Regular People’ – FREE and Represent My Blog!

by Gary Leff

Apr 06 2016

Many of you know that I offer an award booking service. It grew too big to handle on my own, and I was fortunate enough to be able to partner with one of the real veterans and gurus in the frequent flyer game, Steve Belkin (known in online forums as ‘beaubo’).

Steve is most famous for exploiting loopholes in frequent flyer programs like Aeroplan and United’s MileagePlus in a truly big way, scaling opportunities to earn millions instead of thousands of miles. And in that pursuit he has hired disable Thai rice farmers to fly in and out of the Golden Triangle area of Thailand, and New Zealand college students to fly to Europe for the summer.

One of the really fun projects he’s had is called Competitours. Every summer, Steve disappears from work to run what the Chicago Tribune calls “The Amazing Race for Regular People.”

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How to Beat the Airlines at their New Pricing Game

by Gary Leff

Apr 05 2016

Last week I wrote that American changed its fare rules to charge you more on many connecting itineraries and on trips that include stopovers. In fact, United and Delta have done the same thing, though I also explained how to beat the practice.

In one example I showed you how to save as much as 74% on a ticket. Multi-segment itineraries may now be more expensive than buying each segment separately on these three major US airlines. However you can beat the practice by pricing out each flight segment separately, and if cheaper buying the series of one-way tickets instead of a roundtrip, open jaw, or circle trip.

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How to Find Both Success and Passion in Work

by Gary Leff

Apr 05 2016

Chris Guillebeau, who has visited every country in the world and has spoken at Frequent Traveler University, is out with his new book Born For This.

His Art of Non-Conformity was about building work to support lifestyle, and inspired a generation of of people who worked and traveled and didn’t even distinguish between the two. His $100 Startup helped people get beyond barriers to starting a business, to figure out what they’re best at and how to take the leap.

But this may be his most ambitious and important project — to help you figure out what you want out of work, whether working for yourself or someone else, and find it.

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United Flight Attendant Popped Emergency Slide, Slid Down, and Walked Off Her 737 Today

by Gary Leff

Apr 04 2016

A flight attendant onboard this morning’s United flight 1246, a Boeing 737 from Sacramento to Houston, deployed the plane’s emergency slide on arrival, slid down, and walked off.

The flight attendant who exited the aircraft via slide has been removed from duty, though I think the United crewmember was the horse and United needs to be introduced to the barn door. Popping the slide would seem to be the crewmember’s declaration that they’re no longer working flights.

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