Delta CEO Ed Bastian has approached the U.S. Attorney General seeking to put unruly passengers on a terrorist list that would deny future travel across all airlines. This is mostly for show, but anyone concerned with civil liberties should e-mail Ed Bastian.
There’s a chance that restrictions get lifted but the Omicron wave turns out not to be the last gasp of the virus. That would make it thinkable that restrictions could make sense again. But the political calculus is that looks like the administration ‘made a mistake.’ And this administration’s fear of appearing to make an error is balancing out its need to declare victory. And that could delay lifting the transportation mask mandate.
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.
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.
Southwest Airlines just pushed back the return of alcohol on board to “late in the first quarter maybe early in the second quarter” a week ago blaming virus spread. And now they’ve reversed course. Booze will be back on board February 16th.
Good news Southwest is honoring free drink chits with 2020 and 2021 expiration dates. Here’s how you can still get free drinks on Southwest.
Conservative opinion journalist Michelle Malkin reports that she and her husband have been banned by Airbnb for a speech that she gave to a white nationalist conference.
Alex Cruz was passed over to lead airline group IAG in fall 2020 and stepped down as CEO of British Airways. The former head of low cost carrier Vueling is largely credited with cost-cutting at the British flag carrier that led to a deterioration of employee morale, customer satisfaction, and a series of IT meltdowns.
I continue to believe that The transportation mask mandate will end before election day. However restrictions on foreigners are politically stronger, so it takes real lobbying by the industry (it would help to get Sara Nelson on board) to move the needle. And it would be especially awkward to drop a testing requirement right after the Biden administration started mailing tests to everyone. Leave aside that only some of those tests can be used for travel, it creates a bad optic to say testing isn’t important and we’re sending everyone tests.
Last week British Airways CEO Sean Doyle pledged to restore the airline’s reputation for premium service. Now, in a leaked memo to staff, we have a window into changes that BA is making. And so far they seem to amount to fairly weak sauce.
United’s financial advisors “have begun contacting potential investors including private equity firms” about a sale of less than 15% of the MileagePlus program. The buyer may be a strategic partner “to help better monetize data from the business.” A sale could bring over $3 billion in cash.
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 »
