President Biden Makes Captain Sully An Ambassador

by Gary Leff

Jun 15 2021

President Biden announced the nomination of Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger to the ambassador-level position of U.S. representative to ICAO, International Civil Aviation Organization. Sullenberger is best known, of course, as the pilot of US Airways flight 1549 which went down in a ditching in the Hudson River after a double bird strike.

A Republican for most of his life, he switched his voting registration to Democrat in 2019. He endorsed Joe Biden for President in February 2020. This past fall he created a commercial with the Lincoln Project tying his experience with US Airways 1549 to his opposition to Donald Trump’s re-election.

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Family Traveling Home From Funeral Watches As American Airlines Gives Their Seats Away

by Gary Leff

british tail plane
Jun 15 2021

On Sunday a family traveling from Philadelphia to Dallas – Fort Worth on American Airlines flight 410 had their seats given away to standby passengers as they stood at the gate.

The Nelson family, including their 8 month old child, had spent the past several days with Liz Nelson’s father as he passed away, and then at his funeral. American Airlines let them know the day before their flight that their 1 p.m. departure was delayed 16 minutes to 1:16 p.m. and that was their undoing.

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U.S. Government Goes After Air Canada For Cancelling Flights, Stealing Customers’ Money

by Gary Leff

air canada plane tarmac
Jun 15 2021

After more than a year Air Canada is issuing refunds to customers whose flights were cancelled due to the pandemic. They’re only doing this now that the Canadian government has forked over subsidies. They told the government they’d give money back to consumers, but only if the government gave them far more money first.

The Canadian government had backed Air Canada’s decision to keep customer money for transportation that was never provided. For flights to and from the U.S., though, this is a clear violation of U.S. law.

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Marriott Tells Hotels To Start Honoring Elite Breakfast Again July 1

by Gary Leff

Jun 15 2021

Marriott hotels were allowed to close down their club lounges and restaurants during the pandemic. Even where they re-opened restaurants they might not honor elite breakfast, claiming that they weren’t fully staffed or hadn’t fully re-opened.

The elite brown bag breakfast of apple or banana and granola was born. In some cases a credit was offered towards breakfast in the restaurant instead of covering the meal entirely. That “flexibility” ends July 1.

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The Requirement For A Negative Test To Fly To The U.S. Has Become A Farce

by Gary Leff

Jun 14 2021

Testing is no longer needed for people entering the U.S., if it was ever helpful at all. The current testing rules do little to assure people entering the U.S. are negative, and it doesn’t prevent spread of variants. Now that vaccines are available there’s little reason to impose the requirement, which has amounted largely to theater – whether it’s people shopping for a negative test after testing positive, or receiving tests that don’t actually collect or analyze a sample.

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