United’s seat map tool seeks out available adjacent seats during the booking process. They’ll use this to make more adjacent seats available, even in more costly coach seats, when children under 12 are part of a booking. A full rollout of the capability will happen by next month.
The airline will also allow free flight change without fare difference when adjacent seats aren’t available prior to travel. Their new policy applies even on basic economy fares.
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.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal chances are dwindling as he faces charges over billions of dollars in fraud. He’s no longer flying private. He’s no longer even flying lie flat business class from San Francisco back to court hearings in New York. He doesn’t even get to fly into JFK airport.
SBF’s travel has taken a huge hit as the case continues.
I recently stayed at Point Grace Resort which may be the best points redemption hotel option in Turks & Caicos, less than 600 miles from Miami in the Caribbean. The property has just 28 rooms, all suites, right on prized Grace Bay with its soft white sand beach.
‘Spicy’ flight attendant Cierra Mistt is back, offer more dubious tips. This time it’s about using the bathroom on the plane when you first get onto the aircraft. She thinks it’s a bad idea for two reasons. You’re getting in the way of flight attendants preparing for departure, and because if you’re in the lavatory you’ll mess up the passenger count.
San Francisco is getting a The Club lounge, a brand owned by the same company as Priority Pass. It will be in terminal 1, which serves American Airlines, JetBlue, and Southwest. It will be located airside near security.
The Washington Bureau Chief for the Daily Beast took to social media over the weekend to live share the portion of his flight prior to departure where a passenger sitting in front of him was getting his game on over text with two women at the same time, using the same messages with each.
Airports started out close to the city center but the need to expand for more travel and bigger jets, combined with NIMBYism of local residents, pushed airports out to the exurbs. Entire cities built up around the commerce of the destination airport, from shopping to dining in newly planned communities. The aerotropolis was born.
But far from the futuristic vision of perfection, there’s a darker side.
Priority Pass cards from American Express and Capital One no longer include $28 credits at participating airport restaurants but you can still use Chase-issued Priority Pass cards for this.
My favorite is Bobby Van’s in New York JFK’s terminal 8 (the American Airlines-British Airways terminal), because the food is actually pretty good. They have surprisingly decent steaks for an airport, good appetizers, and like the chili and tuna burger too. Decent nachos, though I haven’t tried the crab mac and cheese or crab cakes.
American Airlines has fantastic inflight wifi on most of its planes, but there’s a portion of its fleet that lacks internet entirely and there are many planes where it’s unusable. There was a time when this made sense for technical reasons, because the flights these planes served were usually short, and because passengers weren’t as reliant on what’s become such a basic service.
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 »
