After Delta Air Lines announced it was going all Keyser Söze on its elite frequent flyers, and acting like the master manipulator who leaves no loose ends, even if it means betraying those who trust him, there’s a clear opening for competing airlines.
American Airlines launched service between New York JFK and Delhi in November 2021. They ran into diplomatic roadblocks getting permission to fly over Russia, leading to more circuitous routings which meant that the flight would occasionally have to divert and crew would time out.
Then, once Russia invaded Ukraine, U.S. airlines weren’t permitted to overfly Russia at all. That’s made service to India tougher for United, too.
The founder of the pioneering miles and points blog Million Mile Secrets, now owned by The Points Guy parent Red Ventures, speaks his mind. He was removed from the aircraft after speaking up when he “witnessed a racist flight attendant kick off two black passengers” from an American Airlines flight. The airline called the police on Daraius and removed him from the aircraft. Six officers responded to the scene.
Chen Siming, regularly jailed in China for commemorating his country’s 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, managed to leave his country in July and turned up this weekend in the transit area of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport seeking refuge from persecution.
You may pay tourism fees; concession recovery fees; customer transportation fees; parking recovery fees; vehicle license fees; energy surcharges; and even tire fees. Junk fees often add 50% – 100% to the cost of a car rental. Car rental companies employ the most creative people in the world at developing scam fees and naming them euphemistically.
Toll tracking is one of the more annoying fees that rental car companies impose.
For years they’ve been taking away from the program, sometimes a little at a time and sometimes a lot. And they’ve been requiring more and more from customers to get less and less. Like the proverbial boiling lobster, SkyMiles elite members went along for the most part every step of the way. And that was very good to Delta, generating around $7 billion from American Express at around a 40% margin and accounting for the vast majority of the airline’s profit.
Delta wasn’t satisfied with that, and they got greedy.
Asking passengers to switch seats with parents so they can sit with their children is fraught. No one wants to sit next to your child! If they’re a teenager surely they’re fine sitting alone! And please don’t ask me to take a middle seat in standard coach in exchange for my extra legroom aisle seat!
Here’s a twist that I haven’t heard before, though: a father who asked a passenger to switch seats so that a mother, who was caring for two children (a toddler next to her and a lap infant) could sit with her third child also… so that her husband could sit alone in peace.
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Delta Air Lines paid 13 passengers on an overbooked Boston to Rome flight up to $4,000 each – plus covered their hotel rooms for the night – to get them to give up their seats.
The flight had already boarded when an agent came on board still looking for volunteers, and she ran an auction. You can hear her raising the price to $3,500 begging someone to “take one for the team” and “go shopping.”
A security screener at the Manila airport this month was caught on camera stealing $300 from a departing passenger whose bag she was inspecting. To hide the evidence, she stuffs the money in her mouth.
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 »
