Austin-Area Congressman Stands Up On Southwest Flight, Flouts Mask Mandate

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2021

Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), who represents 10 counties in Texas including parts of Austin and areas North of San Antonio, frustrates me. He was Senator Ted Cruz’s Chief of Staff. He was a critic of Donald Trump until he ran for Congress when he became a supporter. He opposed the President’s calls to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, declared the President to have committed impeachable offenses, but voted against impeachment.

He calls for ‘law and order’ but doesn’t seem to think those rules apply to him.

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Australia’s Covid Plan Could Keep Borders Closed To Visitors Until 2024

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2021

Australia, like several island nations, won the first phase of the pandemic. They managed to contain the virus through strict lockdowns and border restrictions, and for much of the last year and a half life has been relatively normal. Now they’re losing the long phase, and the nation’s Prime Minister laid out a re-opening plan that could stretch years. I do not expect it to take nearly as long.

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United Airlines Just Re-Opened Several Clubs, Has A Schedule For Re-Opening More

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2021

With a big aircraft order and a new commitment to seat back video screens, including retrofitting existing aircraft, United Airlines is trying to capture the mantle of a premium carrier that customers will choose to fly.

However they’ve been slow to re-open their club lounges. Fortunately the airline is feeling the pressure, has started to re-open more of its clubs outside of hubs, and has a plan to re-open more over the summer.

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Passenger Can’t Take American Airlines Delay Anymore, Opens Exit Door And Pops The Slide

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2021

An American Airlines passenger performed his best Hoard Beale from the 1978 film Network on Thursday when the carrier cancelled flight 2398 from Charlotte to Baltimore – after a two hour delay, boarding, and push back from the gate. However there was no one to attach the jet bridge and let everyone off. So the flight full of customers waited. And waited. And waited.

They waited, that is, until our hero decided to open an emergency exit on the full Oasis’d Boeing 737 with 172 passengers, climb out onto the wing, and jump down onto the tarmac.

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The True BA 100K Offer – The One That Started It All – Is Back

by Gary Leff

plane tails
Jul 01 2021

A dozen years ago Chase came out with a 100,000 point offer for their British Airways credit card. (The British Airways currency wasn’t called Avios then.) It was revolutionary and frequent flyers rushed to become British Airways Executive Club members and cardholders.

In recent years Chase has requested hefty spending to earn 100,000 Avios on the card, such as $20,000 in spend. Some members wanted to do this, since they were going to keep spending to earn a ‘Travel Together’ ticket that let them get a second award ticket on the same itinerary without spending additional miles. But it was a lot of spend. Now that’s changed.

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Uber Was Once The Underdog, Now They Use Regulators To Quash Competition

by Gary Leff

person holding phone near steering wheel
Jul 01 2021

New Yorkers thought that when the city capped the number of licenses for for-hire vehicles ‘to prevent traffic congestion’ they were regulating Uber. The truth is they were doing Uber’s bidding by handing the ridesharing giant a tool to keep out competitors.

In New York there are a limited number of licenses, and those are busy working for Uber. New competitors have a hard time entering the market. Startup Revel thought they found a loophole that would allow them to compete against Uber in New York. But they were shut down by regulators in a bizarre process.

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Watch How This Passenger Fakes An Injury To Skip Lines At The Airport

by Gary Leff

person moving wheelchair
Jul 01 2021

Some unscrupulous people used to request wheelchair assistance at the airport when they didn’t need it and use their ‘injury’ to get earlier boarding of their flight, better seats, and more.

Right now though there are very few people at the airport to help push wheelchairs so this is tough to do, but people are still faking injuries to make their travel experience a bit smoother, or at least cut lines.

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