How the Airline Industry Uses Congress to Stack the Deck Against Consumers

by Gary Leff

Feb 25 2016

Congressman Bill Shuster is Chairman of the House Transportation Committee. He’s the son of former Congressman and House Transportation Committee Chair Bud Shuster, who resigned his seat amidst a scandal with a lobbyist.

The current Congressman Shuster dates the Vice President for Global Government Affairs for airline industry lobbying group Airlines for America. Once his divorce was final and he openly acknowledged this relationship she stopped lobbying him, and only lobbies his congressional committee.

Continue Reading »

Finally! American Opens Up Premium Cabin Awards Between the US and South America

by Gary Leff

Feb 24 2016

American’s revenue management has been notoriously stingy about releasing seats for premium cabin international travel over the past three years.

However American has been going to lengths to improve their premium cabin award availability. We’ve seen that with transatlantic space, with Asia flights, and even with Auckland, New Zealand.

And now we’re starting to see much better award availability with South America.

Continue Reading »

Ranking Hotel Elite Program Breakfast Benefits

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

One hotel loyalty program executive relayed the common refrain she got from hotels in the chain when they first began rolling out a breakfast benefit for their top tier elites — “you mean we have to feed them, too?”

And yes – they do — because breakfast is a common benefit of hotel elite programs, at least at the time tier, and it’s something that the better programs need to offer in order to remain competitive.

The most coveted hotel elite perk is upgrades, especially to suites. But perhaps the second most coveted hotel elite status perk is breakfast.

Continue Reading »

Does Visa Shortchange You 1% on Foreign Currency Conversion?

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

A few commenters have argued that Visa charges more for foreign currency conversion than MasterCard — that a Visa with ‘no foreign currency conversion fees’ isn’t really because Visa marks up their exchange rate by 1%.

I’m testing this out on a few trips. I mentioned in the comments that I’m experimenting with comparisons, and I’ve had a couple of folks ask about the status of this in the comments and also by email, so I thought I’d provide an update.

Continue Reading »

Worst Case Scenario: Here’s How to Land a Boeing 737 If You Really Had to Do It Yourself

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

Maybe you’re an ex-military pilot who led a sqaudron over Macho Grande and lost many men. You’ve vowed never to fly again. But you find yourself onboard a commercial jetliner with the cockpit crew knocked out after they’ve eaten the fish.

Or maybe you don’t have any flying experience at all, but you’ve got to safely land your airline’s 737 anyway.

Delta pilot Tim Morgan made a video explaining everything you’d need to from the moment you enter the cockpit.

Continue Reading »

Did You Ever Notice How Airports Make Us Want to Get Naked?

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2016

A Tennessee man . On Sunday, though, he was “walking through the baggage claim area after he left his clothes in the parking lot.. [and] attempted to purchase a plane ticket before airport security apprehended him, returned his clothes..”

Back in October a flight was delayed 11 hours after a passenger became unruly, stripped naked, and requested sex from a flight attendant. In May a man, angry at US Airways for overbooking his flight to Jamaica, stripped naked and walked around the Charlotte airport for an hour to protect the airline’s overbooking….

Continue Reading »