Why Tortas Frontera Is Great, And Other Airport Restaurants Are So Bad

by Gary Leff

Aug 17 2022

I don’t love Chicago O’Hare, but when I book an O’Hare connection I usually think, “at least I can get Tortas Frontera.” And I’ll pick up a sandwich (choriqueso is my go-to, followed by the pepito) even though there’s free lounge food available. I’ll gladly pay for something good enough that I would eat it even if it wasn’t inside of an airport.

There need to be some licensed TGI Fridays and plenty of quick serve places in an airport, to put out a lot of food to travelers with varying palates. But not every place needs to do that.

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QUICK: IHG Discounting Many Award Nights 50%, Unannounced Sale?

by Gary Leff

Aug 17 2022

A week and a half ago IHG was pricing many of its best hotels around the world for about half the usual points. This didn’t last. I told everyone to book quickly, and many did.

Some people were worried that IHG would cancel the reservations, claiming they were a mistake, but this did not happen. IHG has been silent on what happened. However this strange pricing is back.

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New US News Rewards Program Rankings Are Out, And They’re A Big ‘Ol Pile Of Goo

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

The U.S. News Travel Rewards program rankings are out and they are a big ‘ol mess, largely because the methodology they use to rank programs makes little sense – which they’ve known for years and haven’t done anything meaningful to improve.

This year is worse than ever because they say they didn’t even bother searching award availability to determine which airline programs are best, blaming the pandemic. And hotel rankings even appear to punish hotel chains offering strong coverage in smaller markets.

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American Airlines Orders 20 Supersonic Jets, Fly To Europe In 3.5 Hours Or Asia In 5 Hours

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

Last summer United Airlines placed an order with Boom Aerospace for supersonic jets. Now American Airlines has placed an order, too. American claims they’ll have the biggest fleet of supersonic jets since their order is for 5 more planes than United’s.

American made a non-refundable deposit on the first 20. It’s unclear what non-refundable means: probably non-refundable in the case Boom Aerospace winds up in bankruptcy, but non-refundable if there’s never an engine for the plane?

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Pilot – Son Of The Airline’s Chairman – Sends Distress Signal By Mistake, Gets Intercepted By F16s

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

An Airbus A321 from Madrid to Beirut operated by SkyTeam member Middle East Airlines was intercepted by Greek F-16 fighter jets after the pilot of August 10th’s flight 242, son of the airline’s Chairman and Director General, became non-responsive to air traffic control after signaling a distress code. Nothing was wrong, and the flight’s captain may have simply failed to communicate on the correct frequency.

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London Heathrow Continues Limit On Passengers, But American Airlines Says Things Are Getting Better

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

Last month London Heathrow airport placed severe restrictions on the number of passengers who could fly out of the airport, in the face of staff shortages that had left to interminable waits, missed flights, and lost luggage.

Passenger limits were set to end September 11 but have been extended through October 29. Yet American Airlines is actually lifting is ban on nonrev passengers that had been implemented due to the caps saying conditions are improving.

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