A total of 176 people were on board—169 passengers and 7 crew members-were evacuated using the plane’s emergency slides after noticing flames and smoke near the tail of the aircraft. Firefighters arrived within minutes.
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.
When aircraft descend through below-freezing temperatures and high relative humidity (saturated air), they can create snow. Planes aren’t causing snowstorms – just a localized event – but under the right conditions they do cause snow to form and fall to the ground.
Delta at ATL and American at DFW tower over everyone else. American is anchored heavily at a few fortress airports. United splits big capacity across several mid-continent hubs. Southwest is ubiquitous rather than reliant on just one or two big operations.
Both Los Angeles and New York JFK see strong competition among multiple airlines, which keeps the numbers for any single carrier below that of a fortress-style hub. JFK is slot-controlled, while LAX is gate-constrained.
Some airlines around the world cover chauffeur service to and from the airport for business and first class passengers. One of the best used to be Etihad, which – in order to compete against Emirates based an hour away in Dubai – offered to take you anywhere in the U.A.E. when you arrived. They’d drive you to Dubai or Sharjah, and pick you back up there as well. And this even used to be available to passengers traveling on award tickets. Other airlines will offer tarmac transfers from the lounge to the plane and back. Air France does this for La Premiere at Paris Charles de Gaulle. Once clearing dedicated passport control, you drive from Lufthansa’s first class terminal to the plane. After all, you’re in a different terminal from everyone else that’s boarding the…
Ben Schlappig of One Mile at a Time argues that the TSA experience has gotten much better, and mocks civil liberties concerns. He uses my writings, and that of Live and Let’s Fly as a foil for his position.
Bilt Rewards is back with its Rent Day offers for February 1. The headline here is up to a 100% transfer bonus to Star Alliance program Avianca LifeMiles.
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.
Marriott no longer publishes award charts or tells members when they alter their pricing models. They just increase the cost of award nights at their hotels whenever they choose, with no notice. This appears to be one of those times.
Tou don’t want the last thing they remember about the experience to be unpleasant bureaucrats and a cumbersome travel process.
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 »
