Viral Flight Attendant Video Offers 3 Secret Tips For Scoring An Upgrade On Your Flight

by Gary Leff

Sep 09 2021

There’s a certain genre of travel article that gives advice on how to upgrade your flight, with advice that’s nearly always wrong or at least highly misleading.

It usually begins with how you dress, but one Bloomberg piece took the art form to a new level telling you just to mention the words “revenue management” and airlines have to give you a business or first class seat. You’d be better off trying to upgrade by gifting the pilot of your flight a dependable work mule, or dressing up as a mimosa (because alcohol is free up front).

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Entire U.S. Terrorism Watch List Leaked Online

by Gary Leff

Sep 08 2021

The US government maintains a “No Fly List” and airlines are required to check passengers against it before allowing them to fly. They maintain other lists that trigger increased security screening and potentially harassment.

The lists are pre-crime profiling. Not even based on science. And it’s also done very very poorly. People get on the list by mistake, because they’re related to someone who is on it (or just have a similar name), or because they visited the wrong country in the wrong year. .

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Reschedule Flight After Covid Exposure? No Fee Waiver If Your Test Hasn’t Come Back Yet

by Gary Leff

Sep 08 2021

A JetBlue passenger learned he was exposed to Covid-19 and was supposed to fly the next day. Many airlines have dropped change fees from some fares, but this passenger was on a ‘Basic’ fare. He called JetBlue to find out what to do. He had taken a Covid-19 test, but wouldn’t get the results before he was supposed to fly.

He asked to reschedule his trip a couple of weeks into the future. He was told he’d have to pay a difference in fare and also a $100 change fee. JetBlue wouldn’t waive the change fee without presentation of a positive test.

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Capital One Reveals New Best Place To Book Airfare, Save An Average Of 15%

by Gary Leff

Sep 08 2021

Capital One made a $170 million investment in Hopper, the online booking service which uses machine learning to guide customers on when it’s the best time to buy a plane ticket. And they’re partnered with Hopper to roll out their new online travel tool which will layer Hopper’s prediction analytics with guarantees for the traveler. They’re offering the most guarantees of any places customers might book online – all while letting them use their points to pay for travel if they wish.

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