On Wednesday, Air India flight 126 from Chicago O’Hare to Delhi took off at 11:24 a.m. on its 14-hour journey. However, four and a half hours into the flight, the Boeing 777-300ER (registration VT-ALQ) crossed over Greenland as the the 11th out of 12 lavatories clogged and became inoperable. One business class lav still worked. The airline decided to fly the four and a half hours back to Chicago.
A 52-year old retired boxer, Musa Abdraim became a hero on Friday at the Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan when he disarmed a knife-wielding attacker who was holding a young female security officer hostage and threatening to detonate a bomb.
A week ago I stayed at the Viceroy DC. The Viceroy brand participates in GHA Discovery. The hotel is part of the American Express Hotel Collection (and I had a two night stay, so eligible for benefits). And they had an amazing rate – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as low as $163.35++ before.
There are more seats flying today than there were before the pandemic but flights are still below 2019 levels worldwide, and we’re certainly not back to trend.
Capital One’s Tapas Lounge at Washington National Airport (DCA) offers an upscale, restaurant-quality dining experience—easily valued at up to $600 for a group—with complimentary access for Venture X cardholders, making it one of the most generous and unique airport perks in the U.S.
The current guidance is that food for sale is only available on “select flights” that are “over 1,300 miles” and not to expect there to be anything left by the time a flight attendant reaches your aisle because “limited quantities are available.” All they even sell is a fruit and cheese plate ($11), roasted almonds ($8) and cool ranch doritos ($5). That’s going to change.
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.
You can only buy tickets in-person at limited hours, but you can’t buy tickets during those hours. That means there’s no real option to buy them in person, which means that booking online isn’t a choice customers are making, and therefore the web booking fee is not optional. Yet Frontier still excludes these charges from their domestic airfare excise tax calculation.
The Department of Homeland Security announced plans to end unionization of TSA screeners. Unionization of the screening workforce was forbidden when the agency was set up after 9/11. This was added in the Obama administration.
United Airlines is introducing new benefit choices for MileagePlus elite members who never get upgraded: alternative ways to redeem PlusPoints besides moving up to a higher cabin.
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 »
