American Airlines offered an erotic fiction author $2,499 to keep her elite status, and instead of taking the bait she responded the only way she could: in character, through the jetset world of her own books. Beneath the joke is a real point about airline loyalty in 2026 — American is charging real money to preserve status benefits that many travelers increasingly believe no longer deliver much of anything.
Willie Walsh is coming back to run an airline, taking over IndiGo in August after years as the industry’s chief lobbyist at IATA. For passengers, the bigger point is that the former British Airways boss who spent years cutting costs and stripping back the full-service experience is finally getting the kind of carrier he seemed to want all along: a giant low cost airline.
Delta just picked Amazon’s not-yet-operational Leo service to replace its current inflight Wi-Fi on 500 aircraft starting in 2028, giving Amazon a marquee airline customer and a badly needed foothold against Starlink. But for passengers, the more important point is that Delta is still moving slowly: United’s Starlink rollout is already underway and is expected to be much further along before Delta’s new system even starts showing up onboard.
News and notes from around the interweb: United Airlines adds pre-arrival Godiva chocolates to domestic first class. They used to offer these in premium transcon and long haul business class 30 years ago – but where you’d select out of a box. These are individually wrapped. Unfortunately it’s for April only, can’t keep up this investment too long (and probably only being subsidized by Godiva for a short bit). The Belgian chocolatier, like United, is celebrating its 100-year anniversary and will be featured onboard throughout the month of April. Specifically, United says the chocolates will be offered in domestic first class on flights over 901 miles, excluding those departing from Canada and Latin America. The chocolates will be presented as part of the pre-arrival service, about 90 minutes before landing. Flight attendants will serve them…
JetBlue is once again the first U.S. airline to raise checked bag fees, but the bigger story is what that usually signals for everyone else: once one carrier moves, others often follow. But why airlines prefer checked bag fees over fare hikes is sneaky.
Florida just renamed Palm Beach airport for Trump.
But the new name will not actually take effect for months. The law does not kick in until July 1, and there is still federal approval and a naming agreement to get through first.
This wasn’t a TSA line — it was the crowd waiting to get into Delta’s lounge at LaGuardia. Also a fish on the DFW runway, the King of Thailand flying his own plane, and SiriusXM looking more obsolete by the day.
Air Canada’s CEO is stepping down after recording an English-only video statement about a fatal crash, which makes Canada look more ridiculous than serious. But there is an internal logic to it. Once you put the airline’s special language obligations, Quebec politics, and the government’s leverage over Air Canada in the same frame, this stops looking like random national silliness and it makes sense as a Canadian power struggle.
Most miles and points valuations start from the same flawed premise: they measure how much travel a point can buy, then treat that number as if it were cash value. That massively overstates what points are actually worth, because points are less flexible than cash, carry devaluation risk, usually are not spent right away, and often replace travel you would not have bought at the published price in the first place.
A passenger ordered sparkling wine in first class and says the flight attendant served fake bubbles instead. When the real thing ran out, she was reportedly given chardonnay mixed with sparkling water — and told this was American Airlines policy.
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 »
