A passenger checking in at the Atlanta airport reported being solicited for a bribe to avoid the overweight fee on a checked bag. He’s incredulous, despite the bribe offering a significant savings.
While the U.S. still has a vaccine requirement for non-residents to travel here, we’re coming out the era of pandemic restrictions generally. But we’re not becoming a friendly place to travel. In fact we’re largely becoming worse.
For those who need a visa the average wait times are mind bogglingly absurd. The wait time in Mexico City? Over 500 days.
American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja spoke at the Raymond James Diversified Industrials Conference on Tuesday, and he offered several interesting insights into who is traveling now and how American Airlines is thinking about generating revenue from customers going forward.
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.
American Airlines AAdvantage elites – even mere Gold members – can register for Hyatt Explorist status for 90 days. Then there’s a path to keep status through February 2024.
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.
This month the German government extended its mask mandate for travel through April 2023. But this week German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew to Canada and went maskless.
LATAM ran a status match for residents of Colombia only back in the spring. Now they’re after U.S. residents with this new offer.
ExpressJet Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ceased all flight operations. Among other things they blame high fuel costs and the inability to sell hotel travel packages. However if your business model isn’t resilient to sub-$100 fuel you were doomed to fail.
Last year ExpressJet, 49% owned by United, shut down its Embraer ERJ-145 operation, kept one plane and their operating certificate, and since the fall flew as aha! to 11 cities from a hub in Reno. As I wrote at the time, “using high seat cost regional jets on leisure routes. What could possibly go wrong?”
Air Canada has had a long, hot, miserable summer of flight cancellations, delays, and lost luggage – that puts the dreadful performance of U.S. airlines to shame. And even when their flights do take off, it’s no bed of roses, as one woman found out after being offered nothing to eat on a 10 hour flight except a bottle of water and a napkin.
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 »
