American Airlines saved the day for a school group of 77 passengers stranded during a major weather event in Dallas.
The high school band from Missoula, Montana performed at Disney World. On the way back they were stranded at DFW airport, and forced to sleep at the airport for one night. And this was the first experience flying – and even leaving their home state – for many of the teens.
The late Senator Ted Kennedy was flagged at the airport because his name was similar to someone on the No Fly List.* Delta’s CEO wants to expand the use of these lists. And of course we can totally trust that only bad people will be hassled, right? Because law enforcement doesn’t make mistakes.
Tell that to Bethany Farber who was arrested at LAX and jailed for two weeks because, police say, she had the same name as someone else with an outstanding warrant. Here’s what the two women look like, side-by-side, so you can understand the officers’ confusion.
After 3 year hiatus, the Competitours mystery European team travel competition is back.
Featuring 10 teams of two players zigzagging on a secret routing across the nooks and crannies
of Western Europe, participants earn points by accomplishing a series of daily challenges that pushes them gently out of their comfort zone. The top three teams split a cash pool. In 2019, 70% of the teams were repeat players – that’s how much people love it. Each year is a totally new itinerary.
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.
Iceland has become the latest of many countries to remove pandemic-era restrictions. One Mile at a Time says they’re “encourag[ing] people to get infected.”
I don’t think that’s right, and lifting restrictions isn’t a “let ‘er rip” strategy as some have argued, either. It’s simply that the condition that made restrictions make sense early in the pandemic are no longer in effect today.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian as an op-ed in the Washington Post advocating for a federal No Fly List for ill-behaved passengers. What’s striking about the piece is how dismissive it seems to civil liberties concerns and the rule of law, and how little self-awareness there is over steps Delta itself has failed to take to address the problems their crew face in the air. The No Fly List probably won’t make much difference in any case.
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.
Real meals are back in American Airlines first class which is to say we no longer suffer from shrink-wrapped turkey or pimiento cheese sandwiches.
Earlier in the month hot meals returned to first class on flights of 1500 miles or longer. The roll out went surprisingly smoothly. And now meals – albeit a charcuterie plate or vegetarian sandwich on pretzel croissant at lunch – are returning to flights 900-1499 miles in distance. American is choosing to focus on the dessert.
This your chance to have your say on which frequent flyer programs are best.
There are awards where a panel of experts gets together to give out an award based on their own opinion. There are awards where companies pay sponsorship fees and keep winning their sponsored award. And then there’s the oldest and largest consumer-driven awards in airline, hotel and credit card loyalty: the Freddie Awards.
There’s a new award search tool that automates a lot of the hard work in putting together an award redemption, offers fairly comprehensive results, and comes at a reasonable price. You can even try it free with no commitment using promo code VFTW. There’s no benefit to me if you do, but I like the product.
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 »
