While American Airlines Flagship first class largely means a bigger seat, a soup course, and more stuff in the amenity kit – and little else – departing from Sydney means access to the excellent Qantas First lounge as well.
The day began heading over to the terminal from the Rydges Hotel across the street, checking in with American, and then having breakfast in the Qantas first lounge before our flight.
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.
One of the unique features of Washington Dulles airport is that, despite building an expensive train system, they still use “mobile lounges” to ferry passengers across the airport from their D concourse and to bring passengers from some international flights directly to customs and immigration. These people movers were built in the 1960s.
A Frontier Airlines gate agent acted erratically, yelling at passengers as she tried to board the aircraft before a flight from Denver to Norfolk this month in a clip that’s going viral. When a passenger told the gate agent she was rude, the employee responded, NO I AM NOT YOU ARE!”
American Airlines flight 715 today from Venice to Philadelphia diverted today for a medical emergency. It was a crewmember on board in distress. And unfortunately 38-year veteran flight attendant Carol Wright passed away unexpectedly.
Airline domestic first class isn’t a marker of wealth, since a large subset of passengers able to pay for air travel can pay for first class as well as it often isn’t that much more. But it hasn’t really ever been a marker of wealth.
Twenty years ago 90% of seats up front were going to upgrades, which frequently meant business travelers who weren’t poor by any stretch but often in the middle rungs of the corporate ladder. Who is flying up front has changed a bit, especially with managed business travel still down, but it hasn’t matched the mythology of the product in decades.
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.
There are some situations where getting one card precludes you from getting something else, whether it’s the best deal on a mortgage (usually not an issue, but always best to be safe before applying) or another credit card. When there’s a tradeoff you have to consider which choice delivers more value to you.
This was a failure of U.S. authorities – suspecting someone as a drug courier over behaving like an airline employee. It was a failure of Canadian authorities, arresting someone based on a fallible test and locking them up for a week while slow-walking a real test. And it was a failure of the passenger, who didn’t secure legal representation (though as a 22 year old kid on an airline income that’s not surprising).
When Juanie boarded her Delta Air Lines flight, she found that she was seated next to a woman who had a pitbull sitting in her seat. The woman asked Juanie to give up the seat for her pitbull – and, Juanie says, the dog owner became aggressive when she declined.
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 »
