Nov 27 2015

Amsterdam airport will unveil a test of ‘Spencer’ – a robot designed to help passengers navigate the airport. Amsterdam is one of the easier airports to get around, in my view, so I’m not sure the urgency that led KLM to dedicate funds toward its development. However, it’s at least believed “[n]avigating it is so challenging…many of its customers were getting lost and missing flights.”

The one week trial begins Monday, and an official roll out of the technology is planned for March.

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Nov 27 2015

Premium economy is an important product throughout the world, positioning itself between business class and economy. It’s usually offered on long haul flights and depending on the carrier approximates domestic first class in the US perhaps with foot rests. There may be an upgraded meal and beverages as well.

US airlines on the other hand have extra legroom sections with generally the same seat width. But American Airlines CEO Doug Parker hints that they could be the first US carrier to change all that.

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Nov 27 2015

United Airlines – despite dropping service to New York JFK – is trying to compete in the Los Angeles market with a dedicated phone line for Hollywood.

That’s fairly weak sauce for an airport and market that has gone from Worst to First, with the best airline lounges, premium services, and best inflight airport products in the nation.

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Nov 27 2015

Marriott is buying Starwood and Starwood Preferred Guest members are nervous.

Blog reader Vineet S discovered a famous fan of the program ready to take action. Vineet took advantage of a Starwood Preferred Guest private event to meet Lewis Hamilton, the 2014 and 2015 Formula One World Champion.

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Nov 27 2015

It’s a good thing that the TSA doesn’t actually contribute to security, and is only theater meant to make people feel safer while giving up their rights.

Because otherwise it would be a problem that this homeless man went through a TSA checkpoint at Salt Lake City’s airport using a boarding pass that a woman left behind at a check-in kiosk.

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Nov 26 2015

I have the opportunity to give a reader a 3-night stay in a 3-bedroom luxury apartment in Knightsbridge, London. All you have to do to enter is comment.

The giveaway highlights some luxury travel auctions that regularly give away some really high end opportunities dirt cheap — like chartering a yacht in the Caribbean or spending a week in a villa in Greece.

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Nov 26 2015

Hilton is testing a $50 fee for cancelling cancellable reservations.

Skift attributes this to a stronger position on the part of hotels with high occupancy rates, suggesting that “a seller’s market provides hotel owners with a greater freedom to dictate contract terms, including cancellations.”

Hilton’s CEO suggests it’s about hotels lowering rates closer-in, and customers who booked higher rates cancelling and rebooking. He considers that type of perfectly reasonable behavior (wanting to pay less when a hotel will charge less) “gaming.”

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Nov 26 2015

Airbus filed for a new patent in 2013 and which was approved this week: “…Airbus [is] reconsidering the boarding process with an idea to turn aircraft cabins into what amount to shipping containers.”

Passengers would board a module at the gate. Everyone sits down. The module would be lowered into the plane once it arrives. Then when the plane makes it to its destination, the cabin module would be removed and swapped out for new passengers in their own module. And the plane goes on its way.

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Nov 26 2015

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.

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Nov 26 2015

Last Friday an American Airlines passenger preparing to depart Dallas Fort-Worth for Orange County was asked to leave the plane “for being too big.” He’s 6 feet tall, 260 pounds, which seems like a weight and height of a person who flies every day without incident.

He was seated in a middle seat, and the woman sitting in the aisle got up and walked to the front, spoke to a flight attendant, and that’s when cabin crew approached to eject him from the aircraft.

The strange thing is the situation was resolved when he agreed to switch seats, giving up his middle seat and taking the complaining woman’s aisle instead.

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