A woman flying six weeks before the due date of her pregnancy gave birth on an American Airlines flight to the Dominican Republic. American Airlines allows travel up until the fourth week prior to a due date without a doctor’s letter.
The woman’s water broke inflight and then mere minutes later her baby was born. She named her son “Skylen” because he was born in the sky. His birth certificate will reflect his actual place of birth, too.
Airlines get an outsized portion of blame for carbon emissions. While global air travel represents perhaps 4% of emissions, half of that is cargo. In response to the criticism airlines are pledging to do better and reduce emissions. Long-term that may be real, but short-term measures are largely greenwashing.
Even as Hilton offers double elite nights for the last two and a half months of 2022 against still-reduced elite requirements for 2022, Honors has laid out what elite status-earning will look like in 2023: a snap-back to pre-pandemic rules, mostly.
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.
Delta and Starbucks have a new reciprocal earning partnership, which is only upside. There’s even a bonus for linking your accounts, which you should do in order not to leave miles on the table.
Two comedians are suing over being searched for drugs at the Atlanta airport while boarding their flights. The stops and searches lack probably cause, and are generally based on racial profiling (duh). Over a 9 month period, police stopped 402 passengers at the jet bridge in Atlanta. 68% of those were minorities. Fewer than 1% – just 3 – yielded ‘drug seizures’ like THC gummies and six prescription pills.
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.
Hilton’s new promotion: is double points on all stays with checkouts by December 31 plus 2000 bonus points for checkouts on a weekday. In addition Hilton is offering double elite night credit for nights stayed October 11 – December 31, 2022. You need to register for both, award stays count, and the offers tell us something about business travel and loyalty right at this moment.
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.
Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016 and did away with the Virgin brand. Virgin had a nicer first class product, so it was sad to see planes reconfigured. Alaska committed to its Boeing fleet, in contrast to Virgin’s Airbus narrowbodies.
What did Alaska get out of the deal? Slots and gates at congested airports, many of which Alaska has walked away from or underutilized. And they overpaid in a $2.6 billion deal for the privilege, having outbid JetBlue.
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 »
