There are certain sounds, sights, and flavors that evoke travel. It wasn’t originally intended this way, but George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue means United Airlines.
One neglected area of branding – outside of United – is music. So kudos here are noteworthy, in this case for Delta’s landing music.
For two years hotels complained about lack of staffing and supply chain, offering up excuses for high rates and low service. But that lack of service has in some sense been baked into the equation, as hotel properties try to grow profit margins – focusing on short-term gains while taking on long-term risk to their business. And since guest experience isn’t the key focus, it suffers more than the cost cuts alone would require.
Nine Israeli citizens were arrested on arrival in Istanbul after a flight attendant on their Pegasus Airlines flight complained she had been sexually harassed.
The passengers say that the crewmember simply “didn’t like Israelis.” But one member of the group “took a video of her giving the safety instructions before takeoff” and she used that as a pretext for her complaint, though she’d asked the passenger to delete the video and he complied.
Three members of the group have reportedly been held in a Turkish prison on the Syrian border for a week.
The U.S. government is warning Americans not to travel to China over laws and practice there allowing for arbitrary detention for political reasons, and for prosecution over the contents of private emails.
New legislation went into effect July 1 allowing the government to take even greater steps. But what about Hong Kong? And transit through the airport there?
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.
Video posted to TikTok shows a woman ranting as she leaves an American Airlines flight prior to departure in Dallas, yelling that she needs off because there’s a passenger on board who “is not real.” And, she says, anyone that stays on board will die alongside that passenger.
A reposting of the original video is garnering millions of views under the hashtag #drunkonaplane although it doesn’t seem that the woman is drunk.
The U.S. is losing millions of visitors due to absurd wait times for visas. Last year we saw them get 14 times longer than they were before the pandemic, in some cases nearly three years. Make make it difficult for talented people to come here for work, too, and after a short time we… kick them out.
And we don’t do a great job even figuring out who ‘we’ ‘want’ here in the first place.
You’re losing up to 4,166 points per month if you rent and do not have a Bilt Mastercard. This card offers something literally no other card does and it can mean a huge difference in your points balance.
In every disaster, there’s always the story of someone who was supposed to be there too but fate intervened. In this case, Air Canada managed to operate a flight – by no means guaranteed! – and contributed to the demise of Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year old son Suleman.
They got onto a single operating certificate. They merged US Airways Dividend Miles into American AAdvantage (while following US Airways plans for a revenue-based program). They combined pilot and flight attendant seniority lists, and transitioned to a single maintenance platform.
But that’s not all of the work that had to happen. Going into 2023, a decade later, it still wasn’t done. American Airlines and US Airways had separate airport operations, and different gates, in 140 locations. Atlanta was the final station to consolidate gates and that’s just happened.
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 »
