An American Airlines flight attendant took to social media because she wants premium cabin customers to know that they are not entitled to a bottle of water. Traditionally you’ll find a bottle of water at your seat when flying long haul in business class. Alaska Airlines gives you one at your seat domestically. But if you ask for one, that’s at the discretion of the crewmember on American – and this one wants you to know that it is a privilege and not a right.
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.
Two police officers were injured at Washington Dulles airport when a segway belonging to the airport’s Segway/T3 Patrol spontaneously caught fire. The departures level of the head house was evacuated for approximately 90 minutes while the fire department responded to the blaze.
This past Wednesday, boarding passes printed by American Airlines agents no longer show a customer’s full frequent flyer number on them.
This is still just for agent-printed boarding passes. Kiosks, mobile app, and American Airlines website boarding passes still show full frequent flyer numbers, although the plan is that these “will also eventually conceal the frequent flyer number by end of 2023.”
American Airlines has just pulled the trigger on one more element of unwinding the partnership. The airline no longer has access to seat maps for JetBlue flights. They can’t assign seats for customers who booked through them, and have to tell customers to contact JetBlue for seat assignments.
A passenger whose father passed away is railing against United Airlines. His parents were supposed to travel on the airline to London. Without her husband to fly with, his mom still wants to take the trip with her daughter. They have two tickets, and want to use two tickets, but the airline wants an additional $1,000. Is that fair?
Guests took it upon themselves to remove two snakes from the pool. But there was still one in the hot tub. On the way back from the pool area, these guests were confronted by another snake, and watched it enter a guest room. She heard a TV on in the room, so knew someone was inside. She knocked on the door to let the guest know. The man inside tried to catch it with a plunger from the bathroom.
A woman who declined to stay on property reported they refused full refunds, with the hotel requiring 50% forfeiture of the room rate. A manager claimed, that despite photos, guests were “overreacting.”
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.
A Ryanair passenger seated in row one could not find their seat. So they walked all the way down the aisle of the aircraft. More than two-thirds of the way to row 32 in the back, the passenger asks a flight attendant where their seat is. The crewmember walked that passenger all the way back to the front of the aircraft.
An empty seat is the best thing you can do to have a better flight. On most airlines it is luck. On Southwest it is strategy.
Southwest doesn’t pre-assign seats, but if you board early and get the one you want and the flight isn’t sold out, you can improve your odds that the seat next to you stays vacant – by making it unappealing for someone to choose to sit down next to you. Always ask if the flight is full when you board!
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 »
