The Department of Transportation Inspector General’s office will be auditing Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s use of FAA aircraft. This is stupid, the Transportation Secretary often should fly private at times.
He won’t come out and say that. Instead Buttigieg maintains it was cheaper to fly private than to buy airline tickets. If that were true, his office is paying insufficient attention to the scourge of high ticket prices! (Hint: it is not actually true.)
Delta hasn’t been nearly as aggressive with mileage partnerships over the past several years, outside of its main credit card partner, as competitor airlines.
That could be changing. Through March 31, 2023 hotel and car rental bookings through their portal earn qualifying dollars towards SkyMiles elite status.
U.S. Virgin Clubhouses won’t be closed for long. They’re downgrading service providers to Sodexo. Eligible Capital One cardmembers still retain access.
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.
American Airlines offers some nuggets which provide insight into the AAdvantage program, buried in this SEC filing which is over 200 pages long (plus attachments). The biggest takeaway is that fewer seats on American Airlines are filled with passengers redeeming miles than at Delta or Southwest.
Chance the Rapper – 29 year old Chancelor Bennett – was the first person ever to win a Grammy Award for a streaming-only album in 2016. He’s a big deal, even if not all readers will know him.
But he’s not beyond being star struck. He relays that he was flying with his daughter and “found out” that they weren’t seated beside each other. He hadn’t even mustered himself to ask passengers around him to switch seats when a “kind older gentleman offered his seat to” Chance’s daughter.
One dog has the famous US Airways first class pig beat by a long shot. You can see that it is traveling in a fully flat business class seat of its own – all tucked in.
Readers may correct me, but this looks like a LATAM cabin, so a South America flight.
The San Francisco Clubhouse is already closed. Three Virgin U.S. lounges will temporarily close starting Tuesday, February 28.
It’s remarkable how airlines in Europe, the Middle East and Asia can serve amazing meals on short flights, while U.S. airlines serve such lower quality food on flights that are much longer.
But just because you’re flying a European or Asian airline in business class doesn’t mean all of the food is going to be impressive.
One passenger decided to take their alcohol supply needs into their own hands, not via the usual surreptitious method of pouring wine into a coffee cup (and occasionally blowing on it, to act like it’s hot coffee or tea) but with an open bucket. It’s not just Heinekens on offer though, they’re prepared with Coca Cola for anyone that prefers a soft drink as well.
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 »
