The town of Lahaina on Maui is being absolutely pummeled by fire, spurred by wind from a hurricane that passed by. Hundreds of people evacuated. Power and cell service have been down for many. A Presidential Disaster Declaration is expected. Maui lacks ICU beds and burn victims are being flown to Oahu.
Six months ago I wrote about BeOnd which plans to launch as an all-business class airline with a hub in the Maldives.
This seemed a stretch to me. But there are people with real airline experience involved in the project. Their CEO is a former Gulf Air and airBaltic executive. And they’ve just announced they’ve received funding and have plans to launch just a few months from now.
There’s been a lot of hype and handwringing over reports that U.S. credit card debt has reached a record $1 trillion. That’s framed either as an alarm for the economy or a cautionary tale about consumer behavior. But neither of those things seem to be true.
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.
Philadelphia rapper Gillie Da King, formerly Gillie Da Kid, was denied check-in by American Airlines in Madrid. His party of four passengers, flying business class, missed the check-in time and they get into an argument – they were at the airport before the cutoff, but weren’t checked in.
The staffer tells the rapper, an AAdvantage Executive Platinum member, “I don’t want to talk to you” and threatens to call the police.
In both cases, an employee didn’t follow protocol. And in both cases, the employees and their managers were fired, and all employees went through re-training. You’d never get that kind of response from TSA!
These fares will not last. And I would wait a bit on booking non-refundable arrangements based on these tickets. The deals are good enough that I could see the airlines getting sellers’ remorse and arguing that they should be cancelled. (Although under DOT rules, doing so would require them to cover non-refundable losses you incur in reliance on the tickets.)
Hilton has communicated upcoming changes to housekeeping, bathroom towels, bedside power outlets and night lights to hotel owners in the Americas, which they say are changes that “will have the biggest impact on guest satisfaction” while at the same time “being mindful” of property owner margins.
According to an internal communication reviewed by View From The Wing, Hilton hotels must be “clean everywhere and offer a hot breakfast, a great shower experience and a few reliable and friendly touches.”
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.
On Friday I wrote about a United Airlines ‘1K’ status member threated by a flight attendant with being placed on a no fly list over accepting manicotti from another crewmember while sitting in coach.
It turns out that this passenger, who was on his 80th flight of the year enroute to Seattle, has already been flying United again. And he’s now getting the royal treatment from other flight attendants with the airline.
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 »
