Turkish Airlines, which has around 435 planes in its fleet and another 100 on order, is set to announce a major order from Airbus for 345 planes. It will likely be reported in many places as 355 planes, folding in 10 Airbus A350-900s whose purchase was already announced. When you see coverage of the order, talking about how much it is ‘worth’, remember to divide by two.
Southwest Airlines will raise the price of beer, wine, and Spirits effective November 15. Currently wine is $6, beer is $6-7, and spirits are $7. Most options go up by $2, or as much as 33%.
Singapore Airlines is offering business class award space between New York JFK and Frankfurt over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and then most days in 2024 through end of the schedule.
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.
Hyatt is rolling out confirmation of suite upgrades online. This is a big advance in convenience for using these suite upgrade awards. I always worry that inventory will disappear during the time it takes to confirm a suite. I also worry that the manual process won’t be completed correctly.
He’d gotten together with friends to celebrate his friend who had died, and he mixed mushrooms and alcohol – and days later thought he was dreaming and couldn’t wake up. All he was trying to do was wake up and that’s why he tried to kill the engines, and also tried to open the plane’s emergency exit once taken to the back. He even says that the grabbed a coffee pot from the galley and drank it straight to wake himself up.
While being held by police at the airport he took off all of his clothes, he urinated on himself, and he tried cuffing the carrot… all to ‘wake up.’ When he was given a phone to call an attorney, he instead rang his wife and sang It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men.
Southwest Airlines will devalue its points by about 4% on January 1, 2024. The Rapid Rewards program announced several changes a month ago to much fanfare, but this one they buried.
In the battle for limited takeoff and landing slots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, U.S. airlines like Delta, American, and United vied for positions, with Delta receiving the most slots despite not having a Japanese airline partner. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) now faces decisions on slot reallocations, as Delta relinquishes its Portland-Tokyo route and other airlines propose routes that overlap with their joint venture partners, raising questions about competition and consumer benefit.
A group from the Society of Musicians of Ireland performed traditional Irish tunes during a ground delay on an Aer Lingus flight from Frankfurt to Dublin, sparking mixed reactions among passengers. This incident is part of a trend of spontaneous in-flight concerts, with previous instances on Aer Lingus and Southwest Airlines, raising questions about the appropriateness of such performances during flights.
The blog post details a debate at CardCon on credit card interchange legislation, where the author argues against government-mandated lower interchange fees, citing concerns about the negative impacts on the economy, consumer credit, and rewards programs. It contrasts the potential benefits to retailers with the broader societal costs, questioning the real-world effectiveness of such legislation and its impact on various stakeholders, including consumers and financial institutions.
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 »
