United is holding an event on Tuesday with Boeing at the aircraft manufacturer’s facility in South Carolina. They are expected to announce a major order for Boeing 787 long haul aircraft.
These new planes will come with the same economy and premium economy seats United currently uses on their Boeing 787-10 aircraft, however business class with be a new seat – ‘next generation Polaris’ – which offers suites with doors.
I asked Hyatt about the Andaz Scottsdale providing only complimentary water as their free minibar offering, and charging for other non-alcoholic beverages and for snacks. They told me that the brand is rethinking its minibar offering, and in the meantime “properties can determine what minibar selections are offered on a complimentary basis.”
However they’ve since followed up to clarify that – in fact – it turns out that this flexibility is only meant to apply to “the specific types of non-alcoholic beverages and snacks that reflect their destination” and they are still requiring “items beyond complimentary water.”
An Arizona-based dental assistant shared video from an American Airlines flight, where a passenger in the first class bulkhead lit up a cigarette. Sara Radosevich had kudos for the flight attendant hero who “snatched it out of his hands.”
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.
Etihad Airways parked its 10 Airbus A380s during the pandemic, and its CEO said they’d likely never fly again. That’s sad because their best passenger experience was on this aircraft. Indeed, many airlines had their best seats and amenities on the world’s largest passenger jet.
Despite appearing that the planes would never comes back the airline has announced their return, and the Etihad A380 features some of the best seats in the world.
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.
While the worst lines are most often reported at New York JFK terminal 4, things are bad across the system. Reports had been that at JFK Delta was even feeding passengers while they waited in long lines to get into the club.
Now the need for sustenance has grown beyond JFK.
Hilton has announced its new promotion for the first third of 2023: double points plus 1000 bonus points per stay at each different brand.
We’re entering another Covid wave. Peak will probably come in mid-January. In the meantime there’s a lot more Covid in the U.S. We can see that in case numbers, but most cases go undetected. Perhaps the best data source is wastewater measures. Flu and RSV are rising at the same time!
There’s been a lack of clarity for years over whether customer experience matters, or just operational metrics, and whether American is trying to be a premium carrier or a Spirit and Frontier competitor.
So I’m not surprised to see an internal memo going out to flight attendants telling them not to worry about missing catering, customers just want to depart exactly on time and that crew does passengers a disservice when they ensure long flights have food on 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 »
