How Delta Could Have Reduced Crowding, Instead Of Kicking Employees And Customers Out Of Sky Clubs

by Gary Leff

airport lounge
Mar 11 2023

Delta has a close collaboration with Starbucks already. American Express has given out Starbucks gift cards occasionally in the past when denying cardmembers access due to lounge crowding. Surely they could team to buy these cards at a big discount, driving business to Starbucks and freeing up lounge space.

A Delta Sky Club Executive membership went up by $650 this year. The airline could allow members paying $1495 back into the lounge when traveling on a basic economy fare. That extra membership cost covers a lot of $8 gift cards purchased for some percentage off of that.

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Tipping Hotel Housekeeping Is A Bad Practice That You Should Do Anyway

by Gary Leff

toilet
Mar 11 2023

Hotels want guests to give tips to workers, so they can pay lower wages. The CEO of one hotel ownership group actually said the quiet part out loud.

In 2019 Hilton’s CEO said that even he didn’t tip housekeeping. But now hotels are pushing it, and we face a collective action problem. The practice pushes down housekeeper wages, but if an individual guest doesn’t do it that’s less money in a given housekeeper’s pocket on that given day.

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Rich Anti-Vaxxer Offers Passengers $100 – $100,000 To Take Off Their Masks Inflight

by Gary Leff

Mar 11 2023

Serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who co-invented the optical computer mouse in 1980, has developed a real hatred for mask-wearing. It isn’t just that he doesn’t want to wear one. He doesn’t want anyone else to, either. When he flies, he offers other passengers money to take theirs off.

And he has a lot of money. He founded an internet search company in the 90s that he sold to Disney, and built several other companies including a anti-spam provider. So he thinks nothing of starting out with an offer of $100, and going up from there.

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How To Get People To Stop Talking To You On Planes And In Hotel Bars

by Gary Leff

Mar 10 2023

Your seat opponent starts chatting away, and you’re tired and just want to rest, or you want to work. You’re not up for a conversation, don’t really care about their kids or that their monthly flights and co-brand credit card shows how much they know about the airline and its loyalty program.

So you put on noise cancelling headphones but that doesn’t quite do the trick. Sure, you opt for over the ear rather than ear buds just to make it more blindingly obvious yet somehow it isn’t. You also look down at your phone, which is a universal sign for ‘I’m not paying attention to you.’ But maybe it’s not so universal?

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